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In an innovative South-to-South training program organized by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut, Senegalese experts welcomed Malagasy interns to their west African country this year for an immersive learning opportunity that covered topics from the basics of planning research trials to the most high-tech genetics analysis. Eight interns from Madagascar arrived in Senegal in July for training in designing, conducting and assessing breeding trials, specifically in sorghum and peanut.

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut and Pyxus Agriculture Limited (Pyxus) has made it official, inking an agreement that formalizes a partnership that pairs university and private sector research efforts to improve outcomes for farmers in Malawi. In a Memorandum of Understanding between the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and Pyxus, the partners express their mutual interest in performing and disseminating research.

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab is adding two new project managers to the team in Malawi. Norah Titiya Machinjiri Kaula will focus on agronomy and tricot trials, while Wills Mbiriyawaka Munthali will focus on variety trials and seed production. They join Linda Chinangwa, who manages the lab’s social science work in the country.

Each year, the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut brings partners from other countries to share in the three-day bus tour throughout the southern half of Georgia. This year, the lab hosted three dozen guests from Ghana, Senegal, The Gambia, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia for the three-day tour, as well as two additional days of visits to research sites, a food product innovation center, the U.S. peanut germplasm collection and meetings.

More than 4,000 miles separate the capital cities of Senegal in West Africa and Uganda in East Africa. Yet both countries grow peanuts and, like other countries across Africa, farmers there rely on peanuts as a food and cash crop. Five years ago, the researchers who help those farmers – plant breeders from Uganda, Senegal and seven other African countries – formed an organization called the Groundnut Improvement Network for Africa, or GINA, to develop peanut varieties that help African farmers deal with plant diseases and climate change.  

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut recently added two team members in Malawi to oversee projects there. While the Peanut Innovation Lab is headquartered at the University of Georgia and involves scientists from two dozen research insitutions in the U.S. and Africa, these Malawi-based team members are part of the management entity, overseeing day-to-day operations in a very hands-on way. Meet Veronica Guwela, project manager for bio-science research.

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut recently added two team members in Malawi to oversee projects there. While the Peanut Innovation Lab is headquartered at the University of Georgia and involves scientists from two dozen research insitutions in the U.S. and Africa, these Malawi-based team members are part of the management entity, overseeing day-to-day operations in a very hands-on way. Meet Linda Chinangwa, project manager for social science research.

Ten years ago, the Georgia Peanut Tour welcomed its first visitor from the southern African nation of Malawi, where peanuts are part of the local cuisine but are only grown in small gardens or bought in informal markets. Over the next decade, visitors from Malawi attended the tour every year, traveling halfway around the world to see how farmers, shellers, researchers and others work together to get a large crop of peanuts to consumers every year.

Facing a great opportunity to improve food security, but a new geography and set of partners, the Peanut Innovation Lab Management Team has added a new member. As a project manager, Mamadou Thiam will focus on work in Madagascar, while also supporting other projects funded through the lab.