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This article is about the team building exercise that the Managment of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition undertook to "self introspect". The reasoning behind this training was the lack of coorination between the Ministry's Departments and its Donor Funded Projects which has led to the Minstry's clients suffering due to limitted and sometimes poorly provided services. The engaged consultant was able to creat awareness to the Managers on the dangers of the "silo mentality" and encouraged them to work together for the benefit of Basotho farmers. The participation of the Minister, PS and DPS gave participants moral and encouragement that the decisions and plans made during this traning will be implemented with full supoort from these three offices. 

This video demonstrates a new cost effective and innovative approach of in-Country Research Teams to conduct a phytosanitary and other assessments of their produce, capture them on a video and send it to the potential market.  In turn, the potential buyers watches the video and make a recommendation and approves whether to open their market to the seller/producer or not. Consequently, the market players saved a lot of time and financial resources for a team of deligates was supposed to travel from the South Africa to Malawi. This Video resulted in the opening up of the South African Market to Malawian mangoes, Right now (since 2023), Malawi is exporting Mangoes to South Africa.

NPPO-Malawi compiled two videos of pre-harvest and post-harvest handling processes that were inspected at Malawi Mangoes Limited in Salama. The video shows how the client complied with the requirements for the export markets including South Africa. NPPO-Malawi conducted the field inspections in three stages as outlined on the Import Permit: 1) Flowering; 2) Fruiting and 3) Harvest and post-harvest stages. This is Part 1 of the videos.

No âmbito do Projecto Agricultura Adaptativa ao Clima (Projecto AAC), financiado pela Ajuda Popular da Noruega (APN), o Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique (IIAM), a Associação Moçambicana para o Desenvolvimento Rural (AMDER) e a União Geral dos Camponeses de Nampula (UGCAN) desenvolveram um consórcio para implementação de suas actividades nos distritos de Angoche e Meconta, provincia de Nampula.

The deep knowledge of genetic diversity in access, in the breeding program, and the contribution of genetic factors as well as the phenotypic expression is of extreme importance for the development of new cultivars and maintenance of the program. This research aimed to study the genetic diversity and selection of the best common bean genotypes with high agronomic performance in the Agrarian Station of Sussundenga-Mozambique. Twenty-two common bean genotypes were evaluated in a randomized block design with three repetitions in the 2021/2022 agricultural season. The agronomic characteristics evaluated were: the number of days to flowering, plant height, plant architecture, number of pods per plant, the weight of 100 seeds, and grain yield. The data obtained were submitted to individual variance analysis, followed by the Scott-Knott grouping test. For the effect of genetic divergence between the genotypes, multivariate analysis was used based on the generalized Mahalanobis distance and Tocher optimization method, UPGMA, and canonical variables for the projection of distance in the 2D plane. It was also verified by the Cophenetic Correlation Coefficient. The Singh criterion (1981) was used, indicating the characteristics Number of pods per plant (42.81%), the weight of 100 seeds (19.59%), and Plant height (16.08%) as the most important for the genetic divergence of bean genotypes.

The Food and Agricultural Research and Extension Institute, through its new variety introduction and evaluation programme, have identified a tomato variety Jupiter adapted to both humid and sub-humid regions of the island. Jupiter is a semideterminate cooking tomato variety with high-yielding potential and suitable for both fresh market and processing. The plant bears long oblong fruits which are preferred by growers and highly appreciated by consumers.

Onion 243 is a short-day yellow hybrid variety with high yield potential and is suitable for storage. Plants have a uniform fall over of leaves at maturity. Bulbs are globular, uniform, medium-sized, and firm. Yield is comparable to hybrid varieties which are commercially cultivated locally. The variety adapts well to onion-growing regions except in coastal areas having sandy soil.

Guidelines for Extraction of Tomato Seeds

Fluazifop-P-butyl 150 g/L is a systemic, post-emergence herbicide that can be used for the control of annual and perennial grasses. Trials carried out at the FAREI on the effect of fluazifop-P-butyl on these two types of grasses have shown that the herbicide is not phytotoxic to crops such as potato, onion, carrot, creepers, peanut, and banana, as well as non-gramineae ornamentals. Weeds turn yellow or red and weed control is usually completed within 3 to 5 weeks after application

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) is a valuable crop in the dry regions of the world, including Namibia. Due to the intensity and recurrence of drought and heat stress in the traditional sorghum growing areas, there is a need to breed and deploy new generation farmer-preferred and climate-smart cultivars to serve the diverse value chains. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to assess the present state of sorghum production in northern Namibia and document farmers’ perceived production constraints and trait preferences in new varieties to guide drought-tolerance breeding. A survey was conducted using a participatory rural appraisal in the following six selected sorghum-growing constituencies in Namibia: Kapako and Mpungu (Kavango West Region), Eenhana and Endola (Ohangwena Region), and Katima Mulilo Rural and Kongola (Zambezi Region). Data were collected using a structured questionnaire involving 198 farmers in 14 sampled villages across the regions. Results revealed variable trends in sorghum production among respondent farmers when disaggregated by gender, age, number of households, education level, cropping systems, types of varieties grown, and perceived production constraints. An equal proportion of male and female respondent farmers cultivate sorghum, suggesting the value of the crop to both genders in Namibia. Most respondent farmers (63.6%) were in productive age groups of <40 years old. In the study areas, low-yielding landrace varieties, namely Ekoko, Okambete, Makonga, Kamburo, Nkutji, Katoma, Fuba, Dommy, Kawumbe, and Okatombo, were widely cultivated, and most of the farmers did not use chemical fertilizers to cultivate sorghum. Farmers’ perceived sorghum production constraints in the study areas included recurrent drought, declining soil fertility, insect pest damage, high cost of production inputs, unavailability of improved seed, lack of alternative improved varieties with farmers’ preferred traits, lack of organic manure, limited access to market and limited extension service. The key farmers’ preferred traits in a new sorghum variety included high grain yield, early maturity, and tolerance to drought, in the field and storage insect pests. The study recommends genetic improvement and new variety deployment of sorghum with the described farmers-preferred traits to increase the sustainable production of the crop in Namibia.

The magnitude of genotype by environment interaction (GEI) is crucial for selecting high performing and adapted genotypes for targeted breeding. The aim of the study was to determine GEI of newly-developed mutant and traditional sorghum lines for grain yield and yield related traits for drought-prone areas of Namibia. Fifty sorghum genotypes were evaluated under feld conditions using a 10×5 alpha lattice design with three replications. The experiments were carried out in four environments with two growing seasons in Namibia. Data were collected on grain yield and related traits and subjected to the Additive Main Efects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) model. The AMMI model showed that 93.9% of the total genetic variation was attributed to days to 50% fowering (DF), while 94.04% of the variation was due to plant height (PH), 86.52%  to panicle weight (PW), 70.67% to thousand-grain weight (TGW), and 90.68% to grain yield (GY). The larger variations attributed to genotypic efects for PL (36.3%), TGW (33.2%) and PH (20.7%) are useful for genotype selection for yield related traits. Based on a multi-trait biplot and Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUPs) analyses of the GEI data across all drought-prone testing environments, the medium maturity mutant line designated as L7P9-13 was selected as the best yielding (2 tons/ha) and recommended for drought-prone area of Namibia