RESEARCH PROGRAM ON Roots, Tubers and Bananas

Roots, Tubers and Bananas Research

More than 300 million people below the poverty line in developing countries depend on root, tuber and banana crops for food and income, particularly in Africa, Asia and the Americas. The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) is working globally to harness the untapped potential of those crops in order to improve food security, nutrition, income and climate change resilience of smallholders, especially women and youth.

Why roots, tubers and bananas? International Development (Cirad).ii By working with more than 200 other partners, these five Root, tuber and banana crops – cassava, potatoes, centers mobilize complementary expertise sweetpotatoes, yams, bananas, plantains, and and resources; avoid duplication of efforts; and tropical and Andean roots and tubers– are some create synergies to increase the benefits of their of the most important staple crops in the world’s research for smallholder farmers, consumers poorest regions. They provide around 15% or and other stakeholders. more of the daily per capita calorie intake for the 763 million people living in the least developed What are we doing differently? countries. Often rich in key nutrients such as pro- vitamin A, RTB crops can significantly improve RTB is changing the way the research centers nutrition and food security. Many RTB crops work and collaborate, creating a more cohesive can be grown with few inputs and often under and multidisciplinary approach to common harsh conditions. Yet they respond very well to challenges and goals. RTB aims to promote intensification and are high yielders in terms of greater cooperation among an array of calories produced per hectare. As important cash national and international institutions, NGOs crops they can help boost family incomes and are and stakeholders’ groups while strengthening frequently grown or marketed by women. their capacities as key players. Because the full impact of RTB research depends on how well But RTB crops present several common challenges. next- and end-users adopt it, the program’s i International Potato Center, They are propagated clonally rather than with research options are developed together with Bioversity International, seeds, which allows yield-reducing pathogens to stakeholders and are informed by their needs and preferences. Women are widely involved International Center for Tropical build up over time. This calls for a strong design Agriculture, International in the growing and marketing of RTB crops. Yet of private-public seed systems. The crops’ bulk Institute of Tropical Agriculture and perishability put pressure on postharvest they face a different set of constraints than men, innovation. High genetic complexity in any variety and have traditionally been the last to benefit ii Cirad represents the French means breeding is especially difficult. from agricultural research and extension. RTB’s National Institute for comprehensive gender strategy (see gender Agricultural Research (INRA), Who are we? flyer) is guiding the RTB gender research Institut de recherché pour portfolio in order to improve and implement le developpement (IRD) and RTB is a collaboration of five research centers with gender responsiveness. RTB crops also present Vitropic. decades of experience in these crops on different a wide range of options to stimulate youth i continents, including four CGIAR research centers employment in processing and seed systems. and the French Agricultural Research Centre for www.rtb.cgiar.org flagships

FP1 FP2 FP3 FP4 Enhanced Productive Resilient Nutritious genetic resources varieties and crops food and quality seed added value

FP5 Integrated livelihoods at scale

How we work climate-resilient and ecologically sustainable production systems, thereby strengthening food RTB’s strategy organizes research around five flagship security and improving natural resource quality projects (FP). and ecosystem service provision.

Flagship 1 – Enhanced genetic resources Flagship 4 – Nutritious food and added value This flagship will develop and apply leading-edge This flagship aims to harness the nutritional science toward building advanced tools, methods, potential of RTB crops more widely, expand their models and systems to improve accuracy and scale of utilization and add value through postharvest breeding and shorten selection cycles. It will also add innovation. Researchers will collaborate with value to genebanks through enhanced conservation breeders to design and develop more nutrient- research, the linking of genes or traits to genebank dense RTB crops, including biofortified varieties, accessions and the increased characterization of and promote other market-preferred traits. diversity, all of which will guide varietal and trait Market development research will strengthen development pipelines for enhanced uptake and impact. demand-pull and accelerate uptake of nutritious and profitable varieties. FP4 will address the Flagship 2 – Productive varieties and quality seed perishability of RTB crops through improved This flagship will develop improved RTB varieties with storage, transportability and diversified use; it novel breeding targets, methods and processes that will promote gender-equitable development and will be applied to accelerate genetic gains for key traits youth employment along the value chain. FP4 across all RTB crops. It will use participatory, gender- will develop improved methods for postharvest sensitive tools to understand the traits and criteria process modeling that integrate technical, that stakeholders consider when adopting or rejecting economic and environmental aspects and varieties. End-user intelligence will guide breeding enhance the sustainability and profitability of the processes to ensure that novel breeding targets are postharvest sector. integrated. Similarly, FP2 aims to develop and make available good-quality planting materials of diverse, Flagship 5 – Integrated livelihoods at scale advanced RTB crop varieties that meet the needs and This flagship aims to enhance socio-technical preferences of value chain actors. Predictive modeling innovations in RTB-based agri-food-systems, and foresight work will assess future production, to improve smallholder livelihoods, with processing and consumption needs that current end- special attention on gender equity and youth users might not otherwise takes into account, so that employment. FP5 will develop sophisticated breeding considers what RTB varieties might need under tools, methods and approaches that facilitate the current and future climates. analysis of trends and opportunities of RTB crops and competing enterprises through quantitative Flagship 3 – Resilient crops modeling and stakeholder engagement; and This flagship seeks to close yield gaps of RTB crops to guide investments for actors at household, vulnerable to biotic and abiotic threats, and will monitor landscape, value chain and policy levels. Co- pest and pathogen movement, assess risks and design learning, capacity development and participatory responses for new threats. It also aims to develop more testing of RTB innovations will guide FP1–FP4 and encourage innovation in livelihood systems. This flagship will not only stimulate sustainable intensification of RTB systems for market capture, but will also support diversification of RTB crops so that smallholders realize improved livelihood resilience and nutrition. FP5 will strongly engage with other CRPs and their complementary flagships. A broad alliance of research-for-development stakeholders & partners