Jonne Rodenburg’s Post

In the Open Access publication "Host interactions, pathology, economic impacts and management of the facultative parasitic weed Rhamphicarpa fistulosa" we review, discuss and interpret the past 10 years of research conducted on rice vampireweed, a fascinating but destructive plant that I study since 2006: https://lnkd.in/egz-8Jpd This review starts where the previous review, conducted in 2014, finished:  https://lnkd.in/ecTv9Bud Since that previous review we've learned a lot more about this parasitic plant, how it affects its host, how wide-spread it is and the extent of damage it causes on the African continent but also how it can be managed without the use of herbicides.

Today students acquired some basic agronomy research skills, collecting crops & weed data in our wheat-faba bean intercropping experiment followed by data analysis and interpretation in the classroom. This is part of the module Agronomy & Crop Physiology, of the MSc programme Agriculture for Sustainable Development, here at Natural Resources Institute-University of Greenwich. I got the feeling they enjoyed it ....

New Open Access paper in Annals of Botany: "Macronutrient application rescues performance of tolerant sorghum genotypes when infected by the parasitic plant striga" by Immaculate M. Mwangangi, PhD, Lucie Büchi, Stephan M. Haefele & myself. We demonstrate here that host-plant losses by striga can be completely restored by a well-balanced fertiliser, but ONLY /for host-plant genotypes with a Striga-tolerant background. The sensitive genotype still suffered high yield losses despite fertilisers. Work carried out at Natural Resources Institute - of University of Greenwich & Rothamsted Research and funded by UKRI-ResearchEngland & The Royal Society https://lnkd.in/eRsj47xY

A week after our Ranscombe farm visit, we* are discussing implications, conditions and validity of regenerative agriculture, analysing the soils we sampled with students of Natural Resources Institute-University of Greenwich. Soils originate from two different fields, with different crop & livestock management, and three positions on the catena. We then discuss field observations & lab results against different hypotheses, comparing fields and locations. * Marcos Paradelo Perez & myself, part of MSc modules Soils & Environment and Agronomy & Crop Physiology - Master programmes Global Environmental Change and Agriculture for Sustainable Development.

Today we enjoyed soil-sampling-friendly weather, and passionate demonstrations and explanations from the farm-manager Andrew Lingham at Ranscombe Farm, during our annual field visit with Natural Resources Institute - University of Greenwich students of the master programmes Agriculture for Sustainable Development & Global Environmental Change and NRI staff Marcos Paradelo Perez, Karna Hansson & myself. Discussing applications, implications & challenges of regenerative agriculture. Talking about cover crops, intercropping, mixed farming, soils & weeds and much more.

I've just submitted the final report of our (Natural Resources Institute & Kenyatta University) Striga Smart Sorghum Solutions for Smallholders in East Africa project, funded byThe Royal Society. Looking back on a productive and enjoyable collaboration with Steven Runo, resulting in some key outputs (and more in the pipeline): *a New Phytologist paper: https://lnkd.in/eNMESx-J * a Plants People Planet paper: https://lnkd.in/e-5X-D5p *a farmer-instruction video: https://lnkd.in/eJM_Y5AE * Striga resistant sorghum varieties and adapted fertiliser technologies * 9 MSc and 2 PhD student completions

We produced a farmer instruction video entitled: "More Sorghum, Less Striga? Using resistant cultivars and improved crop nutrition" Striga is a parasitic weed causing severe yield losses to sorghum and other cereal crops in sub-Saharan Africa. This 17-minute farmer-instruction video emphasises the need for an integrated management approach to address that problem. The video shows examples of Striga-resistant sorghum cultivars and suggests combining these with targeted soil- and foliar applied fertilisers and growing legumes as inter- or rotation-crops. Kenyan sorghum farmers and researchers from KALRO and Kenyatta University (KU) explain how this can best be done. The video shows fertiliser calculations and application instructions. See:  https://lnkd.in/eQt_kbxp This is an output of the International Collaborations Award of The Royal Society, granted to Kenyatta University and Natural Resources Institute (respectively Steven Runo and myself). Other language versions will be uploaded soon