Graham Thiele, RTB Program Director, presents an introduction to the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) during the 18th Triennial Symposium of the International Society of Tropical Roots Crops (ISTRC) in October 2018.
3. RTB is working globally to harness the untapped
potential of those crops to improve food security,
nutrition, income, climate change resilience and
gender equity of smallholders
Banana
Plantain
Cassava Potato Sweetpotato Yam Other R&T
Program Objectives
4. Research design: where is value added in RTB?
RTB crops share:
•Genetic complexity (> grains)
•Vegetative propagation, similar seed
systems
•Perishability, bulkiness and post
harvest/value chain options
5. Program Structure: Flagship Projects (FP)
FP1
Enhanced
genetic
resources
FP2
Productive
varieties &
quality
seed
FP3
Resilient
crops
FP4
Nutritious
food &
added
value
FP5 Improved livelihoods at scale
Outcome Orientation
foresight/horizon scanning
Livelihoods
tradeoffs for intensification
gender transformative
Outcome Support
scaling, partnerships, gender responsive
6. Six reasons why RTB is still the best CRP!
1. Added value through synergistic, cross cutting flagship research
2. Leading the way among CRPs for new breeding mindset (EiB)
3. Strong gender research, new directions
4. Dynamized communications, raised visibility RTB crops
5. Cutting edge on scaling
6. Outstanding monitoring, evaluation and learning platform