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Announcement for the third African congress on CA. The workshop is themed around; Building a Resilient Future in Africa through Conservation Agriculture and Sustainable Mechanization and shall be held in Morocco

A series of hybrid country-focused meetings took place between NARES, national and regional stakeholders, CGIAR breeders and F2R-CWANA WP2 researchers to promote the fast-track release of the most suitable Genetic Innovations for the CWANA region. Participants were familiarized with OneCGIAR strategies to disseminate Genetic Innovations and were asked to prioritize, firstly, the crops and crop- Target Product Profiles (TPPs) available in the OneCGIAR portfolio that were considered most important for the countries. Prioritization was based, among other considerations, on their socioeconomic importance for the country and the current availability of suitable varieties targeting the TPPs selected. Secondly, newly released but underutilized varieties that best fit the selected TPPs were also prioritized. The prioritized county and crop-level target product profiles and newly released varieties will be the basis of subsequent activities related to developing and releasing genetic innovations within CWANA under WP2. This record is for the stakeholder engagement meeting in Egypt.

ICARDA’s Germplasm Health unit (GHU) is responsible for the monitoring, clearance and documentation of safe germplasm movement at the Center's locations in Lebanon and Morocco. All incoming and outgoing genetic resources and breeding germplasm must go through a strict quarantine monitoring system, including seed health testing. To confirm the health status of seed samples, the GHU conducts different types of tests based on the nature of the pest to be identified. In this manual, we listed and described the procedures of diagnostic tools validated by ICARDA’s GHU for detection of cereal seed-borne pests.

Simulation modeling is an approach that describes processes of crop growth, development, and yield formation as a function of biophysical (weather, soil, water, nutrients, and crop management) factors using mechanistic and process-based computer models (Hoogenboom et al., 2012; Keating et al., 2003). Those input datasets for the model are derived from different sources, such as field experiments, household surveys, web-based data sources, remote sensing data, published literature, etc. Crop and Cropping System Models are a valuable ex-ante decision support tool which generates useful outputs for the precision agricultural management, provides decision for climate change mitigation and adaptation with ecosystem services, and also provides decision for institutional and policy reform (Fig. 1). Such models can be used to evaluate the effects of various agronomic practices, varieties, and climate change impacts on crop production and food security at the field, farm, and landscape levels. Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) (Keating et al., 2003), Cropping Systems Simulator (CropSyst) (Stöckle et al., 2003), Decision Support System for Agro-technology Transfer (DSSAT) are the process-based major cropping system models, and Hydrus-1/2/3D (Šimůnek et al., 2013) is a major hydrological model. Simulation models have the potential to quantify the magnitude of crop yield gaps and determine its factors.

Chickpea and lentil are the major legume crops grown in Ethiopia, providing people with balanced nutrition of proteins, minerals, fibers, and carbohydrates. Since 2019, farmers in the highlands of Ethiopia are losing their crops because of virus epidemics, and lentil production area in Ethiopia was reduced due to the virus infection. Knowing genetic variation and the exact identity of viruses affecting crops is essential for breeding for resistance and crop management purposes. Serological tests for more than 2000 chickpea and lentil samples showed that the most important viruses are Chickpea chlorotic stunt virus (CpCSV) on both crops, and Pea seed-borne mosaic virus (PSbMV) on lentil. Representative samples were selected for further analysis with RT-PCR and sequence to identify the isolates at molecular level. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the Ethiopian PSbMV isolates (5 lentil & 1 chickpea) are clustered with pathotype 2, and CpCSV isolates (3 chickpea & 2 lentil) are clustered with Serogroup-I.

A series of hybrid country-focused meetings took place between NARES, national and regional stakeholders, CGIAR breeders and F2R-CWANA WP2 researchers to promote the fast-track release of the most suitable Genetic Innovations for the CWANA region. Participants were familiarized with OneCGIAR strategies to disseminate Genetic Innovations and were asked to prioritize, firstly, the crops and crop- Target Product Profiles (TPPs) available in the OneCGIAR portfolio that were considered most important for the countries. Prioritization was based, among other considerations, on their socioeconomic importance for the country and the current availability of suitable varieties targeting the TPPs selected. Secondly, newly released but underutilized varieties that best fit the selected TPPs were also prioritized. The prioritized county and crop-level target product profiles and newly released varieties will be the basis of subsequent activities related to developing and releasing genetic innovations within CWANA under WP2. This record is for the stakeholder engagement meeting in Uzbekistan.

Hessian fly (HF), Mayetiola destructor (Say) is an important pest of wheat in North Africa, North America, Southern Europe, Northern Kazakhstan, Northwestern China, and New Zealand. It can cause up to 30% yield losses and sometimes can result in complete crop failure if infestation coincides with young stage of the wheat crop. Studies to-date have shown the availability of genetic diversity in the wheat genetic resources (landraces, wild relatives, cultivars, etc.) for resistance to Hessian fly. About 37 resistance genes have been reported from these wheat genetic resources for resistance to Hessian fly, of which, some have been deployed singly or in combination in the breeding programs to develop high yielding varieties with resistance to HF. Deployment of resistant varieties in different agro-ecologies with other integrated management measures plays key role for the control of HF. This paper summarizes the importance, life cycle, mechanisms of resistance, gene mining, and wheat breeding efforts for HF resistance.

A series of hybrid country-focused meetings took place between NARES, national and regional stakeholders, CGIAR breeders and F2R-CWANA WP2 researchers to promote the fast-track release of the most suitable Genetic Innovations for the CWANA region. Participants were familiarized with OneCGIAR strategies to disseminate Genetic Innovations and were asked to prioritize, firstly, the crops and crop- Target Product Profiles (TPPs) available in the OneCGIAR portfolio that were considered most important for the countries. Prioritization was based, among other considerations, on their socioeconomic importance for the country and the current availability of suitable varieties targeting the TPPs selected. Secondly, newly released but underutilized varieties that best fit the selected TPPs were also prioritized. The prioritized county and crop-level target product profiles and newly released varieties will be the basis of subsequent activities related to developing and releasing genetic innovations within CWANA under WP2. This record is for the stakeholder engagement meeting in Lebanon.