The cassava Community of Practice aims to promote the routine application of MAS in breeding programs and to develop relevant schemes that effectively integrate MAS with field-based strategies. The CoP particularly seeks to promote capacity building activities which will give the needed impetus required to rapidly deploy new breeding technologies and tools for the benefit of resource-poor farmers whose livelihood depends on cassava. Other goals include the establishment of a web-based system for information sharing and germplasm exchange.

The conference report for the 2nd Scientific Conference of the Global Cassava Partnership for the 21st Century held in Uganda in June has just been published. The report can be found at the web site of the journal Food Security online (subscription required). You can also email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you would like a copy of the report. Clicking here some excerpts of the report.

After many months of intensive development work, numerous testing sessions,invaluable feedback from potential users and several redesigns of structure and functionality, the Integrated Breeding FieldBook V 2.0.0 is here at long last – a tool that will in time greatly enhance the quality of phenotype data on which critical breeding decisions are based.