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Farmer-based seed multiplication is widely promoted by development practitioners, but there is limited understanding of the individual or collective motivations of farmers to engage or disengage in specialised seed production. The objective of this study is to understand the factors influencing the continuity of sweetpotato vine multiplication enterprises in the Lake Zone of Tanzania, five years after support from a project ended. A total of 81 out of 88 trained group or individual decentralised vine multipliers (DVMs) were traced to assess their vine multiplication activities. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through telephone and field interviews. Our data showed that 40% of the 81 DVMs had sold vines in the year prior to the study and 20% had maintained the improved varieties for their own use. Some group members had continued vine sales as individuals. The DVMs’ reasons for abandoning vine multiplication included climatic and water access issues, market factors and group dynamics. The DVMs did not engage in high volumes of commercial sales. Socio-economic norms and values underpin the transactions of sweetpotato vines. These norms may undermine the emergence of commercially viable enterprises yet seem navigable for a substantial number of the DVMs. Group DVMs seem less commercially successful than individuals.

Virome analysis via high-throughput sequencing (HTS) allows rapid and massive virus identification and diagnoses, expanding our focus from individual samples to the ecological distribution of viruses in agroecological landscapes. Decreases in sequencing costs combined with technological advances, such as automation and robotics, allow for efficient processing and analysis of numerous samples in plant disease clinics, tissue culture laboratories, and breeding programs. There are many opportunities for translating virome analysis to support plant health. For example, virome analysis can be employed in the development of biosecurity strategies and policies, including the implementation of virome risk assessments to support regulation and reduce the movement of infected plant material. A challenge is to identify which new viruses discovered through HTS require regulation and which can be allowed to move in germplasm and trade. Onfarm management strategies can incorporate information from high-throughput surveillance, monitoring for new and known viruses across scales, to rapidly identify important agricultural viruses and understand their abundance and spread. Virome indexing programs can be used to generate clean germplasm and seed, crucial for the maintenance of seed system production and health, particularly in vegetatively propagated crops such as roots, tubers, and bananas. Virome analysis in breeding programs can provide insight into virus expression levels by generating relative abundance data, aiding in breeding cultivars resistant, or at least tolerant, to viruses. The integration of network analysis and machine learning techniques can facilitate designing and implementing management strategies, using novel forms of information to provide a scalable, replicable, and practical approach to developing management strategies for viromes. In the long run, these management strategies will be designed by generating sequence databases and building on the foundation of pre-existing knowledge about virus taxonomy, distribution, and host range. In conclusion, virome analysis will support the early adoption and implementation of integrated control strategies, impacting global markets, reducing the risk of introducing novel viruses, and limiting virus spread. The effective translation of virome analysis depends on capacity building to make benefits available globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Insect-proof net tunnels can help reduce virus infection of clean virus-tested sweetpotato seed produced by decentralized seed producers. However, optimal management is required to maintain both quality and quantity of seed produced. This study investigated the effect of the ratoon cropping technique on vine production in net tunnels and open fields. Virus-tested planting material of two varieties, Kabode and Mataya, were grown in net tunnels and open fields. Each variety had 80 plants per plot, with 40 following the ratooning technique and 40 a replanting technique. The ratooned crop was harvested six times, comprising the initial harvest and five regrowths. This covered 14 months representing six generations of vine production. The number of vines, number of nodes per vine, and vine length were recorded. The number of plants showing virus symptoms was also recorded. The ratoon cropping technique produced more vines compared with the replanting technique in both net tunnels and open fields. Cv. Kabode produced more vines in open fields compared with net tunnels regardless of cropping technique. On the other hand, cv. Mataya produced relatively equal numbers of vines in net tunnels and open fields. Despite ratooning leading to more vine production compared with replanting, the technique led to higher virus incidences on plants grown in the open. This also varied with variety with the highest virus disease incidences being recorded on cv. Mataya. We recommend the ratoon cropping technique for sweetpotato vine production in net tunnels. Replanting technique should be adopted for vine production in the open fields because it acts as a key control strategy for virus infections even for susceptible varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetatively propagated crop (VPC) seed tends to remain true to varietal type but is bulky, often carries disease, and is slow to produce. So VPC seed needs to be handled differently than that of other crops, e.g., it tends to be sourced locally, often must be fresh, and it is less often sold on the market. Hence, a framework was adapted to describe and support interventions in such seed systems. The framework was used with 13 case studies to understand VPC seed systems for roots, tubers, and bananas, including differing roles and sometimes conflicting goals of stakeholders, and to identify potential coordination breakdowns when actors fail to develop a shared understanding and vision. In this article, we review those case studies. The framework is a critical tool to (a) document VPC seed systems and build evidence; (b) diagnose and treat coordination breakdown and (c) guide decision-makers and donors on the design of more sustainable seed system interventions for VPCs. The framework can be used to analyze past interventions and will be useful for planning future VPC seed programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viruses pose a major challenge to sweetpotato production in Tanzania. Use of cleaned-up, virus-tested seed vines distributed through a formal seed system is among the proposed strategies to address this challenge. However, virus-tested seed vines can get infected once in the field and it is not known how they will perform following several seasons of on farm propagation. We assessed the performance of virus-tested seed vines and farmer-sourced seed vines of a susceptible variety, Ejumula, and a relatively tolerant variety, Kabode, over five seasons to understand the trend in root yields, vine yields and virus incidences. The experiments were done in high and low virus pressure areas. The most prevalent viruses were sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus (SPCSV) followed by sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV) and sweet potato leaf curl virus (SPLCV), respectively. Both farmer-sourced and cleaned-up, virus-tested seed of cv. Ejumula were rapidly infected with SPCSV. The incidence of this virus on Ejumula's farmer-sourced material at the high-virus-pressure area reached 100% by the second season. The incidences for all three viruses remained stable for cv. Kabode across the five seasons. Plants generated from cleaned-up, virus-tested seed had lower incidences for all viruses compared to those from farmer-sourced planting material. Virus-tested seed produced significantly higher root yields for cv. Ejumula in the high-virus-pressure site, with a gradual drop across the seasons. The findings show that regular replenishment of clean, virus-tested seed is more economical in high-virus-pressure areas and for more susceptible varieties like cv. Ejumula. They also indicate that farmers may be reluctant to invest in cleaned-up, virus-tested seed in cases where they have virus-tolerant varieties such as cv. Kabode due to lack of obvious virus effect on yields. [Display omitted] • Use of clean, virus-tested seed is effective in controlling sweetpotato viruses. • Clean sweetpotato seed degenerates slowly compared to farmer-sourced seed. • Regular replacement of clean seed is more economical in high-virus-pressure areas. • Effectiveness of clean seed programs is dependent on variety and agroecology. • Virus-related degeneration in sweetpotato is also affected by mineral nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disaster plant pathology addresses how natural and human-driven disasters impact plant diseases and the requirements for smart management solutions. Local to global drivers of plant disease change in response to disasters, often creating environments more conducive to plant disease. Most disasters have indirect effects on plant health through factors such as disrupted supply chains and damaged infrastructure. There is also the potential for direct effects from disasters, such as pathogen or vector dispersal due to floods, hurricanes, and human migration driven by war. Pulse stressors such as hurricanes and war require rapid responses, whereas press stressors such as climate change leave more time for management adaptation but may ultimately cause broader challenges. Smart solutions for the effects of disasters can be deployed through digital agriculture and decision support systems supporting disaster preparedness and optimized humanitarian aid across scales. Here, we use the disaster plant pathology framework to synthesize the effects of disasters in plant pathology and outline solutions to maintain food security and plant health in catastrophic scenarios. We recommend actions for improving food security before and following disasters, including (i) strengthening regional and global cooperation, (ii) capacity building for rapid implementation of new technologies, (iii) effective clean seed systems that can act quickly to replace seed lost in disasters, (iv) resilient biosecurity infrastructure and risk assessment ready for rapid implementation, and (v) decision support systems that can adapt rapidly to unexpected scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]