Cholani Weebadde
Assistant Professor - Plant Breeder for International Programs Michigan State University
- East Lansing MI
Cholani Weebadde is dedicated to training the next generation of plant breeders as hunger fighters.
Media
Biography
After graduating with her PhD from MSU, Cholani worked in international agriculture outreach for over a decade and then moved on to research, teaching, and outreach activities as a faculty member with the Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences (PSM) Department. She currently holds a 100% teaching appointment but continues to maintain a strawberry breeding and research program to provide hands-on training to graduate and undergraduate students. Her international graduate students have focused on crops and traits of national importance for their graduate degree research. As a result of her lifelong passion for training plant breeders, she has developed a curriculum to launch Global Plant Breeding, a brand new fast-track (4 semesters) online master’s program in Spring 2025.
As a graduate student who dual-majored in the Genetics and Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology (PBGB) programs and benefits from the global knowledge networks built and nurtured at MSU as a faculty member, she appreciates and wants to use the platforms and visibility that MSU provides to transfer plant breeding knowledge and expertise across borders through online education.
Meeting Dr. Norman Borlaug, the Man who fed the world, as a student and as a faculty member at MSU, was an inspiration for Cholani to realize the power of a plant breeder to make a difference. She believes that plant breeders have a larger role to play and hopes to inspire others to join in her efforts to educate the next generation as we strive to feed a hungry world.
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Global Scholar, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR)
2021 - 2022
Education
University of Colombo
B.S.
Botany/Plant Biology
1998
Michigan State University
Ph.D.
Genetics and Plant Breeding
2005
News
Pigeon pea, white yam might make perfect crop combination in Ghana
Michigan State University online
2017-07-13
The project’s principal investigator is Dr. Cholani Weebadde, an assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences. The other investigators are Dr. Hashini Galhena Dissanayake, an assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Entomology, CSIR’s Dr. Patricia Acheampong, an agricultural economist, and BHEARD’s Eric Owusu Danquah and Princess Hayford, both students in MSU’s Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences.
Hayford brings extensive experience with pigeon pea, a new crop for Ghanaian farmers, to the project. Owusu Danquah, pictured above, studied white yam production extensively before joining MSU in fall 2016. He sold Weebadde, his mentor at MSU, on the potential of combining pigeon pea and yam in a single cropping system. Weebadde asked Owusu Danquah to help write the AAP grant proposal during his first semester.
“(Owusu Danquah) is a smart person, very enthusiastic and full of energy,” Weebadde said. “I wanted him to do more than he thought he could do.”
Journal Articles
Assessment of the organoleptic properties, species delimits and varietal identities of pennyworts in Sri Lanka
Journal of the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka2021
Asiatic pennyworts (AP) (Centella asiatica) are among the most popular leafy vegetable species in Sri Lanka. Five AP cultivars, namely, Lowland AP (LAP), Giant AP1 (GAP1), Giant AP2 (GAP2), Salad AP (SAP), and Medicinal AP (MAP) are grown in the country. Two other leafy vegetable species, water pennyworts (WP) (Hydrocotyle verticillata) and Korean pennyworts (KP) (Adenophora triphylla), are also designated under ‘pennyworts’ in Sri Lanka. The consumer preference on the pennywort bunches available in the market and the salad properties are yet to be studied. Also, no attempts have been reported for the identification of species delimits and phylogenetic relationships among the different cultivars of C. asiatica. In the present study, consumer preference on the appearance of leaf bunches and salads of pennyworts were assessed. The intra- and interspecific variation of pennyworts grown in Sri Lanka were also studied. The genomic DNA extracted from the immature leaves was PCR amplified for the DNA barcoding markers matK-trnT, atpB-rbcL, and rbcL. The PCR products were sequenced and used to assess the intraand interspecific variation. The consumers mostly preferred to purchase the leaf bunches of GAP2 because of its large leaf size and appealing look. However, the highest preference for salads was reported for the dishes prepared using LAP, MAP, and WP. The clade structure of the phylogenetic tree drawn for AP cultivars shows an intraspecific variation. Our study also highlights the importance of producing an improved AP cultivar with larger leaf size, improved flavor properties, and sinuate leaf margin.
Sustainable Intensification and Climate-Smart Yam Production for Improved Food Security in West Africa: A Review
Frontiers in Agronomy2022
Intensification of staple food crops such as Yam (Dioscorea spp.) while sustaining the environment is imperative in providing food for the expected 9.6 billion global population by 2050. In West Africa, amid the threat posed by climate change on food security, yam production is associated with deforestation and land degradation. Integrated soil fertility management and improved staking options for intensification and sustainable yam production on continuously cropped fields hold the key to addressing this challenge. This review evaluates the last decade's yam production trends in West Africa and in three leading yam-producing countries, Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire, using the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT) data. A production increase of 1.72, 1.43, and 1.35 times resulted in an area harvest increase of 2.25, 1.23, and 1.59 times in Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire, respectively. Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire had the worst yam productivity across the decade by producing at an average yield 17.3 and 12.5%, respectively, of the estimated potential yam yield (50 t ha−1).
Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) and white yam (Dioscorea rotundata) cropping system: Improved resource use and productivity in Ghana
Annals of Agricultural Sciences2022
Yam production along the West African yam belt is challenged with deteriorating soil fertility and unavailability of stakes, resulting in decreased yam productivity, and farmers' livelihood. This study evaluated resource use and yam productivity in pigeonpea-yam cropping systems in Ghana's forest and forest-savannah transition zones from 2017 through 2019 cropping seasons. Pigeonpea was established either in an alley or as a border during the 2017 cropping season, while yam was cultivated in 2018 and 2019. A split-plot design of cropping system (yam planted in alleys of pigeonpea-PA; yam planted with pigeonpea as a border-PB and sole yam) as main-plot treatments and chemical fertilizer (0-0-0; 23-23-30; 45-45-60 N-P 2 O 5-K 2 O kg ha −1) as subplot treatments were used for the study. Productivity data on pigeonpea and yam were collected. The results revealed significantly higher leafy biomass and correspondent higher N content and N due to fixation in PA fields than PB fields in both locations and seasons. The presence of the pigeonpea and its biomass resulted in a significant suppression of ridge erosion and weeds, while soil moisture and nutrients improved, resulting in increased yam tuber productivity than in sole yam production. Further, planting yam with pigeonpea and half (23-23-30 N-P 2 O 5-K 2 O kg ha −1) the recommended fertilizer rate significantly improved tuber yield and productivity than planting sole yam with full recommended fertilizer level in both locations and seasons. Promoting and adopting the pigeonpea-yam cropping system could sustain soil fertility, provide readily available stakes to address the constraint of deforestation and land degradation associated with yam production.
Financial analysis of Pigeonpea-Yam cropping system options and implications on profitability of smallholder farmers in Ghana
Agroforestry Systems2022
A study conducted in the Forest and Forest-Savannah transition zones of Ghana during the 2018–2019 cropping seasons to investigate the profitability of integrating pigeonpea into yam described as a pigeonpea-yam cropping system consisted of; yam planted with pigeonpea in alleys (PA) and as a border (PB) compared with sole yam (SY). PA, PB, and SY plots were further divided into sub-plots, and subjected to three inorganic fertilizer treatments of 0–0–0, 23–23–30, 45–45–60 N–P2O5–K2O kg ha⁻¹ as no, half, and full fertilizer rates, respectively. Three farmer-practiced scenarios of access to no, half, and full recommended fertilizer rates were evaluated with profitability indicators of Income Equivalent Ratio, Net Present Value (NPV) and Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR). The results revealed that planting yam in PA with half and full fertilizer rates resulted in IRR (the discounted rate at which NPV equals zero) of 5.67 and 5.90 respectively at Fumesua and 5.66 and 5.88 respectively at Ejura in both seasons. Interestingly, planting yam in PA with half and full fertilizer rates resulted in a similar BCR. Even when yams were planted without fertilizer, the presence of the pigeonpea resulted in a better BCR than when half and full fertilizer rates were used on SY for both locations and seasons. Thus, adopting the proposed technologies even without fertilizer will be profitable for each Gh₵ 1.00 spent. As such, the Pigeonpea-yam cropping system can be promoted as a viable option for soil fertility management and a readily available source of stakes for sustainable yam production.
INFLUENCE OF PIGEON PEA (Cajanus cajan) -YAM (Dioscorea rotundata) INTERCROP ON PLANT-PARASITIC NEMATODES AND YIELD OF WHITE YAM
Journal of the Ghana Science Association2024
Integrating pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) into white yam (Dioscorea rotundata) cropping system would provide a readily available source of stakes for yam vines and also improve soil fertility through biological nitrogen fixation. To promote pigeon pea-yam intercropping, there is a need to determine the effect on parasitic nematode and yam productivity. Three cropping systems comprising yam in rows of pigeon pea (PA), pigeon pea as border plants around yam plots (PB), and sole yam (SY) were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three replications at Ejura and Fumesua in the forest-savanna transition and forest zones of Ghana respectively. Various nematode genera, population density, yam tuber health quality and yield were evaluated at harvest. Results showed varied effects of the treatments on yield as well as Rotylenchulus, Helicotylenchus, Meloidogyne, Pratylenchus, and Scutellonema nematodes species attacking yam. Nematode population densities from soil and yam peel, and yam tuber galling and cracking, were lower in PB than in PA plots. However, the yield in PA was 13 and 27% higher than PB and sole plots respectively. Although higher yam tuber yields were observed in PA, the results suggest PA favored nematode population density increase requiring further research to enhance the benefits of the pigeon pea-yam intercrop system.
