Promoting Root Microbes for Integrated Striga EradicationIn Sub-Saharan Africa, many farmers face challenges accessing affordable resources to protect crops against pests and diseases, and ensuring stable crop yields for food, feed and fiber. While natural resources and fertile soils are becoming scarcer every day, feeding a growing global population will require novel and sustainable strategies to increase agricultural production. Nature offers potential allies that can help us enhance food production with less fertilizers and harmful pesticides. These partners are beneficial microbes. All life depends on them to provide many essential ecosystem services. How exactly can these microbial partners help?Our aim is to engineer soil and plant microbiomes to enhance crop productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, we will explore and harness the functional potential of soil- and plant-associated microbes (bacteria and fungi) to minimize yield losses caused by Striga, a root parasitic weed that adversely affects many cereal crops all over the Sub-Saharan region.