Science for Africa’s future food security: rethinking breeding to adapt to diversified cropping systems

Diversified production systems is a promising strategy to boost productivity, biodiversity, and resilience. Unlocking the potential of diversified cropping systems to improve crop productivity and resilience in Africa requires developing and deploying crop varieties tailored to diverse cropping syst...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ayenan, Mathieu A. T., Schafleitner, Roland, Pawera, Lukas, Odjo, Sylvanus
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Springer 2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179158
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author Ayenan, Mathieu A. T.
Schafleitner, Roland
Pawera, Lukas
Odjo, Sylvanus
author_browse Ayenan, Mathieu A. T.
Odjo, Sylvanus
Pawera, Lukas
Schafleitner, Roland
author_facet Ayenan, Mathieu A. T.
Schafleitner, Roland
Pawera, Lukas
Odjo, Sylvanus
author_sort Ayenan, Mathieu A. T.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Diversified production systems is a promising strategy to boost productivity, biodiversity, and resilience. Unlocking the potential of diversified cropping systems to improve crop productivity and resilience in Africa requires developing and deploying crop varieties tailored to diverse cropping systems. Achieving this goal hinges on a deep understanding of farmer preferences and their willingness to adopt varieties that boost both productivity and agroecosystem services. A better understanding of existing cropping systems can provide valuable insights for identifying functional traits essential for crop improvement. To effectively harness adaptive and functional traits, breeders, agronomists, physiologists, socio-economists, and farmers must collaborate to select cultivars with desirable characteristics and design optimized production strategies. However, breeding cultivars suited to such systems presents challenges, including the need to identify and select for complex trait combinations, as well as the development of robust phenotyping methods for mixed cropping environments. Addressing these challenges requires innovative breeding techniques, an agroecological understanding of diversified systems, active farmer engagement, supportive institutional, seed, and regulatory policies, and the support of funding agencies, all of which are essential to advancing breeding efforts for diversified systems.
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spelling CGSpace1791582025-12-21T23:06:47Z Science for Africa’s future food security: rethinking breeding to adapt to diversified cropping systems Ayenan, Mathieu A. T. Schafleitner, Roland Pawera, Lukas Odjo, Sylvanus biological traits intercropping cropping systems breeding seed systems Diversified production systems is a promising strategy to boost productivity, biodiversity, and resilience. Unlocking the potential of diversified cropping systems to improve crop productivity and resilience in Africa requires developing and deploying crop varieties tailored to diverse cropping systems. Achieving this goal hinges on a deep understanding of farmer preferences and their willingness to adopt varieties that boost both productivity and agroecosystem services. A better understanding of existing cropping systems can provide valuable insights for identifying functional traits essential for crop improvement. To effectively harness adaptive and functional traits, breeders, agronomists, physiologists, socio-economists, and farmers must collaborate to select cultivars with desirable characteristics and design optimized production strategies. However, breeding cultivars suited to such systems presents challenges, including the need to identify and select for complex trait combinations, as well as the development of robust phenotyping methods for mixed cropping environments. Addressing these challenges requires innovative breeding techniques, an agroecological understanding of diversified systems, active farmer engagement, supportive institutional, seed, and regulatory policies, and the support of funding agencies, all of which are essential to advancing breeding efforts for diversified systems. 2025 2025-12-21T23:06:47Z 2025-12-21T23:06:47Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179158 en Limited Access Springer Ayenan, M. A. T., Schafleitner, R., Pawera, L., & Odjo, S. (2025). Science for Africa’s future food security: Rethinking breeding to adapt to diversified cropping systems. Food Security. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-025-01616-7
spellingShingle biological traits
intercropping
cropping systems
breeding
seed systems
Ayenan, Mathieu A. T.
Schafleitner, Roland
Pawera, Lukas
Odjo, Sylvanus
Science for Africa’s future food security: rethinking breeding to adapt to diversified cropping systems
title Science for Africa’s future food security: rethinking breeding to adapt to diversified cropping systems
title_full Science for Africa’s future food security: rethinking breeding to adapt to diversified cropping systems
title_fullStr Science for Africa’s future food security: rethinking breeding to adapt to diversified cropping systems
title_full_unstemmed Science for Africa’s future food security: rethinking breeding to adapt to diversified cropping systems
title_short Science for Africa’s future food security: rethinking breeding to adapt to diversified cropping systems
title_sort science for africa s future food security rethinking breeding to adapt to diversified cropping systems
topic biological traits
intercropping
cropping systems
breeding
seed systems
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179158
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