The Perfect Fry: Breeding Potato Varieties to Satisfy the Market
Chips, French fries, pomme frites, or fries za kifaransa in Swahili. Whatever you call them, fried potatoes are among the world's most popular foods. It’s no different in Nakuru, Kenya.
At the Nakuru market, Rada Mwati stands...
19 Jun 2026
How Wild Potato Genes Can Help East African Farmers Beat the ‘Chemical Tax’
For many smallholder farmers in the tropical highlands of East Africa, the dream of a bountiful potato harvest is increasingly overshadowed by a ‘chemical tax.’ Disease pressure keeps farmers trapped in a costly cycle – spraying...
5 Jun 2026
Sweetpotato Leaves à la Singida
The sun is barely up when I meet Jasmin Salum in her family’s irrigated plot in Mumbivi, a small village just outside Singida in central Tanzania. The air is cool, still holding the last traces of night. The only sound is the...
3 Jun 2026
Bart Panis: Cryobank Scientist With a Marathon Vision for the Future of Bananas
In this edition of our Seed Heroes series, we recognize Bart Panis for his pioneering work on the conservation of banana diversity and for leading the establishment of the world’s largest cryobank for bananas in Leuven, Belgium.
22 May 2026
Power of Diversity Grants 2026 - Call for Proposals
€2.2 Million in Power of Diversity Grants for Opportunity Crops
Opportunity crops are getting a boost in six countries thanks to the Power of Diversity Funding Facility. On 12 May 2026, the Facility issued a Call for Proposals,...
12 May 2026
From Nettle Soup to Genebanks: Joachim von Braun on Food, Science and the Seeds of the Future
For more than four decades, Joachim von Braun has been at the forefront of understanding and improving how the world produces and shares food. As a professor at the University of Bonn, he started the Center for Development...
30 Apr 2026
The Alliance: Workshops to Scale Opportunity Crops
Two recent features by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT spotlight how Colombia is working to scale the potential of locally important opportunity crops – and where barriers still hold them back.
Both stories...
17 Apr 2026
Colombia Steps Up for Crop Diversity: Inside AGROSAVIA’s Work with the Power of Diversity Funding Facility
Potato, cassava, guava, passionfruit and peach palm are as Colombian as cumbia, Betty la Fea and Gabriel García Márquez’s magical realism. These crops are found in markets, kitchens and backyard gardens across the country,...
13 Apr 2026
CSIS: AI and Global Food Security
A new article by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) explores how AI is transforming crop breeding, describing it as a ‘force multiplier’ that can improve the pace, precision and scope of crop improvement....
7 Apr 2026
Logotonu Meleisea Waqainabete: Guardian of Crop Diversity in the Pacific Islands
The latest in our Seed Heroes series celebrates genebank manager Logotonu Meleisea Waqainabete for her work protecting crop diversity and supporting food security at the Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees (CePaCT) in Fiji.
In...
11 Feb 2026









