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A research project in Northern Ghana evaluated the effectiveness of a peanut-based school meal. With more structure to the school day and a guaranteed meal on the way, student attendance increased 70 percent over the previous year, and the change was even more pronounced for girls.

A partnership between the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut and Southern African Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program brought innovation and capacity-building to scale, training 3,636 farmers in groundnut production and aflatoxin control, including 2,245 women and 363 youth. Through the collaboration – which was built on the strengths of both parties – thousands of smallholder farmers received training in Malawi (669 farmers), Mozambique (381 farmers), Zambia (1,254 farmers) and Zimbabwe (1,322 farmers).

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut, working with Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) has released another animation highlighting best practices for growing peanuts. Groundnut: Preventing Aflatoxin is available on YouTube, at SAWBO and on the Peanut Innovation Lab website.

Early career success is about more than just gaining expertise in a field. A working professional has to make decisions about where to work, how to balance professional and private time and when to invest in more education. That’s why the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut works to connect graduate students with mentors and to foster useful conversations that help a scholar navigate the working world.

The University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences helps smallholder farmers feed the world through a partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Peanut Innovation Lab — technically, the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut — is a five-year, $14 million program funded through an agreement between USAID and UGA.

Pierre Diatta is working on a PhD at the University of Georgia and helping a team of researchers understand the barriers that prevent young people from going into agriculture in his home country. The research is funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut and spearheaded by agricultural economists Brad Mills of Virginia Tech and Genti Kostandini of UGA.

A network of plant breeders across Africa continues to grow and produce results for farmers. Brought together by Peanut Innovation Lab projects and funding, a network of plant breeders in nine countries spanning West Africa and East and Southern Africa have been sharing germplasm and knowledge, which has led to new varieties in Malawi and soon will lead to another new variety in Zambia.

All Peanut Innovation Lab projects made significant advances during FY21, despite the many limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Strong partnerships with national program partners kept research moving forward, and virtual communication tools meant everyone stayed in touch.

A group of researchers has identified where within peanut’s genome the resistance to Groundnut Rosette Disease (GRD) lies, which will enable targeted plant breeding to give farmers a variety that can withstand the disease. By finding the major locus controlling GRD resistance and validating that locus as suitable for marker-assisted selection, the team achieved an historic accomplishment in 2021 in the fight against the most destructive peanut disease in Africa.