Producing of new crop varieties boosted

By Agnes Nantambi

INCAPACITATED African farmers will have a reason to smile following the launch of a new project aimed at shortening the time taken to produce new crop varieties.

 The project will not only save farmers from waiting a little longer but will also save the researchers from spending over ten years scrubbing their heads in the laboratory to produce new varieties .

This will be done through an automated system of studying genetics and DNA of various crops by the use of a new machine called the Geno grinder and the Polimeris Chain Reaction (PCR) which allows the multiplicity of DNA and the Enzyme Linked Immuno Sombet Assay (ELISA) for routine detection of pathogens that affect plants like bacteria, fungi and viruses.

The Geno grinder worth USD 21,000 has a capacity to grind 380 plant samples in three minutes to analyse their genes unlike previously where lab scientists used a manual motor to grind plant samples and this would take 3weeks to grind the same amount of plants.

According to the Project coordinator Dr. Richard Edema the long time taken in researching and releasing new varieties to farmers has been worrying many on which variety to resort to after an attack on one of the varieties has been experienced.

The five year project funded by the Bill Gates foundation through the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is also sponsoring a total of 30 Master’s students in Plant breeding and Seed systems from Rwanda, Uganda, S.Sudan, Benini, Malawi, Kenya, and Ghana among others.

The project is to be implemented in cooperation with Makerere University Agriculture Research Institute Kabanyororo (MUARIK), Kwame Nkruma university of science and technology (Ghana), KwaZulu Natal University (S .Africa) in Partnership with AGRA.

Agra will be offering USD 2.6million to Makerere while MUARIKI will offer the premises and facilities to take on the students. This will cover tuition fees for the students for the entire programme, internship costs and facilitation of supervisors among others.

According to the programme officer, Education and Training (PASS) at AGRA, Dr.Rufaro Madakadze, the project is aimed at building capacity among African Scientists to develop improved varieties to cater for the increasing demand for improved seed varieties in Africa.

“We are supporting this project because there are so many plant breeders who are working in the field and they were taking long to develop new varieties, the growing population in Africa calls for more innovation in research to come up with crop varieties that are high yielding and tolerant to pests and diseases and effects of climate change,” She said.

She said “This project is helping to train researchers to develop the varieties faster to make it more efficient to the farmers so that the farmers do not have to wait for ten years for new high yielding and disease resistant varieties.

She explained that all staple crops that small holder farmer’s work on in Africa will be worked on like, cowpeas beans, maize, cassava and rice among other crops.

During the launch of the project, the Deputy Director, Directorate of Research and Graduate Training (DRGT) Prof. David Owinyi applauded the Project coordinator for winning the grant saying there were many universities that applied but only three in Africa succeeded.

He expressed optimism that the project will contribute to increased food production saying, the population pyramid of African countries is a wedge with a huge bottom representing the youth, implying the need to produce more food.

“Africa’s need for food is going to increase and therefore we need more research and young people to come on board to produce more food,”

Dr. Edema however said that the college could not take on all the 30 students because already they had students supported by other projects like the Next Generation Cassava among others.

AGRA’s goal is to provide shorter term skills enhancement course for staff, support visiting instructors in specialised programs, review the curriculum improve post BSc training in breeding on top of establishing a cow pea breeding program and manage an internship program for completing students in reputable seed companies.