Report of Virtual Conference. BASICS Phase I - Achievements and Learnings Meeting. May 18-19, 2020

The Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed System in Nigeria (BASICS) project began in 2016 and formally ends on 30 June 2020. The project has made progress in demonstrating that commercially viable production and sale of breeder, foundation and certified seed is possible. Furthermore, the project has established a strong basis for building a sustainable seed system by developing building blocks across the seed value chain. This meeting had the following objectives: 1. To identify the achievements and lessons learned in each of the project components; 2. To identify the shortcomings in each component (what would I do differently, knowing what I know now?), remaining challenges and ideas to overcome them; 3. To assess and discuss the challenges and progress made in integrating the components into an integrated seed system and identify ways integration can be improved; 4. To assess and discuss the commercial sustainability of the seed system and identify options to promote its sustainability and further scaling; and 5. To make plans for the publication of the findings and lessons learned during BASICS-

User guide to the small N exploratory case study. RTB user guide

A qualitative study of a small number of farmers helps the research team to understand a seed system, such as local preferences for seed and varieties, and differences based on wealth, farm ecology or gender. The study should ask a few questions focused on important topics. Fifteen people per category is usually enough. Be aware of sampling bias. Review the literature and confer with colleagues before designing the interview questions. The results of the qualitative study will keep costs down by helping to design a second, quantitative study that asks the right questions of the right people

Online Course on Potato Production for Georgia: Final Technical Report (FTR)

The Online Course on Potato Production for Georgia was held to strengthen the potato seed production capacities of local and national technicians in the USAID Potato Program in Georgia. The virtual course was funded by USAID and organized by the International Potato Center (CIP) covering the following topics: pest and disease management, seed production, and fertilizer and water management. The course was organized around six online webinars and six discussion sessions using CIP’s Talent MS platform. Each webinar and discussion session took between 60 and 90 minutes. The online webinars included a pre-recorded presentation and a Q&A session led by the course instructors. The webinars were prepared in English by the course instructors (with input from the course organizers) and were translated (text and voice over) into the Georgian language. The discussion sessions mainly included panels, with the instructors asking questions to stimulate discussion, and responses from the participants or students (farmers, business people, extensionists and researchers). There was simultaneous English-Georgian translation for all Q&A and discussion sessions. About half of the course participants were women. The online webinars were held over six consecutive weeks (1 June—7 July), usually on Tuesdays (two webinars were held on Wednesdays). The discussion sessions took place that same week on Thursday. A 10-question, multiple-choice test was given at the start of each webinar and near the end of each discussion session (one unique test each week) to judge how well the participants mastered the course material. Students who attended at least five webinars and five discussion sessions received a certificate of participation. The six units were: Unit 1: Integrated management of late blight - Wilmer Pérez Unit 2: Integrated management of viral diseases - Segundo Fuentes Unit 3: Plant nutrition and fertilizer management – Elke Vandamme Unit 4: Postharvest and seed potato storage – André Devaux Unit 5: Production of seed potato - Jorge Andrade-Piedra Unit 6: Irrigation and water management – David Ramírez and Javier Rinza At the end of week 6, the participants evaluated the course, suggesting that they thought that the content, instructors and format were of high quality

Report of the virtual RTB ISC Annual Meeting 2021. The Grand Finale. July 7-9, 2021

OBJECTIVES • Progress by flagships shared with Independent Steering Committee (ISC) and RTB community • Reflection of RTB achievements and challenges • Contribute to the transition to One CGIAR with collective knowledge assets • Consolidate lessons learnt for implementation of new initiative

Case studies of Roots, Tubers and Bananas seed systems.

The seed systems of RTB (root, tuber, and banana) crops are unique because they are propagated from vegetative parts of the plant, not from true seed. RTB seed is thus bulkier, more perishable, and more subject to the attacks of pests and diseases than is true seed. Because of this, there is often a gap between potential and real crop yields, which seed interventions seek to narrow. Seed systems are formal or informal networks of people and organizations that produce, plant, and distribute seed. Informal systems may deliver low quality seed, but not always. This book describes 13 RTB seed system interventions, using a framework based on the concepts of seed availability, access, and quality. The 13 case studies included (1) a potato-growers’ association in Ecuador, (2) a hydroponic seed potato in Peru, (3) a yam seed technology in Nigeria, (4) a banana and plantain project in Ghana, (5) a sweetpotato seed project in Tanzania and (6) one in Rwanda, (7) a seed potato system in Kenya, (8) cassava in Nicaragua, (9) seed potato in Malawi, (10) disease-resistant cassava varieties in seven African countries, (11) a tissue culture banana project, (12) an emergency plantain and banana project in East Africa, and (13) a large cassava seed project in six African countries