Off-types indicate natural outcrossing in five tropical forage legumes in Colombia

Flower colour has been used as a simple morphological marker for genetic studies in many species, including legumes. In several tropical forage legumes, grown to evaluate their environmental adaptation or for seed increase, white-flowered plants were observed when the predominant flower colour was either yellow (Chamaecrista rotundifolia) or pink, lilac or purple (Centrosema virginianum, Codariocalyx gyroides, Desmodium heterocarpon and Galactia striata). Open pollination of these 5 species took place each at one of 4 sites in Colombia. Progeny from white-flowered plants were examined for flower colour to assess the proportion of off-types. This ranged on average from 4 percent for D. heterocarpon, through 13 percent for both G. striata and Ch. rotundifolia, and 18 percent for Ce. virginianum, to 23 percent for Co. gyroides. Large differences were recorded among accessions of the same species, particularly in Ce. virginianum, where 4 of the accessions apparently produced autogamous offspring and the other 5 had high proportions of off-types, with a rate as high as 89 percent. Consequences of these results for germplasm collection, management and seed increase are discussed

The Tanga Dairy Platform: fostering innovations for more efficient dairy chain coordination in Tanzania

The Tanga Dairy Platform, created in 2008, is an informal forum of different stakeholders involved in the dairy industry of Tanzania’s Northeastern Tanga region. The platform’s objective is to exchange knowledge and develop joint actions to common problems. Six years on, it is a sustainable example of a commodity association addressing the joint problems of the region’s dairy industry. The platform has achieved a common understanding among chain actors on dairy price structure; it has successfully lobbied policy makers to reduce value-added tax on dairy inputs and products, and to remove limitations on urban dairy farming in Tanga city

Relationships among different geographical groups, agro-morphology, fatty acid composition and RAPD marker diversity in Safflower ( Carthamus tinctorius )

Patterns of geographical diversity, and the relationship between agro-morphological traits and fatty acid composition were assessed for 193 safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) accessions representing forty countries. Accessions were assigned to eight groups based on geographical proximity. Cluster and Principal Component analyses were performed to assess patterns of diversity among the accessions and to select the most distant accessions from each of eight groups for analysis of randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. There was a large amount of diversity for agro-morphological traits, fatty acid composition, and RAPD markers. Most correlations among different traits were rather low. Plant height showed a positive correlation with days to flowering (r=0.63**). Palmitic acid was positively correlated with stearic acid and oleic acid values, and negatively correlated with linoleic acid (P<0.01). Oleic acid and linoleic acid showed a strong negative correlation (r=−0.89**). The first three principal components together explained 59% of the variation, however, neither principal component analysis (PCA) nor marker analysis revealed a clear relationship between diversity pattern and geographical origin. Accessions from some geographical regions tended to group together, such as accessions from South Western Asia, Central Western Europe, and the Mediterranean region. The correlation between the morphological matrix and the genetic matrix based on RAPD markers was not significant (r=0.027). Wide diversity in safflower germplasm indicates a considerable potential for improving this crop for both agronomic and quality trait