New Class of PhD Students in Agricultural Science Graduate from African Centre for Crop Improvement
For more information, please contact:
Stella Kihara at +254 735 380 199 or skihara@agra-alliance.org
Ann Mureithi at +254 721 318 214 or AMureithi@agra-alliance.org
PIETERMARITZBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (20 April 2010)—Seven agricultural PhD candidates sponsored by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) graduated this week from an advanced studies program in plant breeding at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. The students will employ the tools, knowledge, and experience gained from their studies to take on the challenge of improving food security against the backdrop of unstable economic systems, rising food prices and input costs, diminishing soil health, and climate change.
Emanating from as far afield as Zimbabwe, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi, the African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI) students fulfilled a rigorous five-year study and research period, including two years of academic studies at UKZN, followed by three years of field research in their home countries. During that time, they were fully trained with advanced knowledge in: Plant Breeding, Biometry, Genetics, Biotechnology and Plant Pathology, as well as scientific communication and project management skills.
“Accelerated agricultural growth is essential for alleviating poverty and reducing hunger for millions of rural people on the continent. The ACCI program empowers the future generation of plant scientists to tackle one of Africa’s most serious problems: how to create high-yielding, locally-adapted varieties of the important food crop,” said Dr. Namanga Ngongi, President of AGRA.
The ACCI program is a critical piece of AGRA’s broad range of work to improve agricultural production for Africa’s smallholder farmers. The program hopes to fill gaps left by the “brain drain” of African researchers leaving the continent and by the paucity of training opportunities in Africa for its scientists. Furthermore, the program requires students to conduct field research in their home countries so that after graduation they can apply their academic knowledge in their home environment with local resources.
The number of agricultural researchers declined by half in sub-Saharan Africa in the last 20 years due to lack of funding for agricultural education, and more than half of agricultural scientists in active service are due to retire within the next five years.
To ensure the students are supported after graduation, AGRA has committed to funding the students’ research programmes so they can sustain their plant breeding projects, and ensure that they deliver new crop varieties to farmers, a process that takes five to 20 years.
Ms. Kiddo Mtunda from Tanzania, one of this year’s graduates, is enthusiastic about the value of the programme’s approach. “It’s important to train Africans in Africa on the local crops, because we learn in our local environment,” she said. “After finishing, we remain here to help the farmers.”
The work of previous ACCI graduates has already had a significant impact in communities in southern and eastern Africa. They have delivered new crop cultivars, improved the skills of plant breeders, and raised the status of plant breeders and scientists at research stations and government agencies.
For example, Dr. Joseph Kamau has registered 21 cassava varieties for the semi-arid regions of Kenya; Dr. David Mariote has released two maize hybrids in Mozambique; Dr. Andrew Efisue has delivered new Nerica rice cultivars in Nigeria; and Dr. Philip Kwena, Dr. Theresia Munga, and Dr. Crispus Oduor are poised to register new cultivars of maize, cassava and finger millet in Kenya. The plant breeding of Dr. Martin Orawu and Dr. Stanley Nkalubo in Uganda on cowpea and dryland beans is at the final stage before release, where farmers assist in selecting the best varieties.
“All five individuals displayed the trademark excellence that we have come to expect from ACCI graduates and graduates-in-training—high technical acuity, total self-confidence, and most importantly, a commitment to a cause that is greater than themselves,” said Dr. Joe DeVries, head of AGRA’s Programme for Africa’s Seed Systems (PASS).
The success of the ACCI programme is due, in no small measure, to the Director and originator of the ACCI, Professor Mark Laing, and to the energetic team of expert plant breeders that he has assembled. They have developed a novel curriculum and process to empower African plant breeders so they can address the issues of food security and ultimately contribute to changing the face of agriculture in Africa.
Government and university research systems in Africa produce only a trickle of new technologies that farmers can use due to a capacity gap illustrated by the following alarming facts:
Africa has 70 researchers per million, compared to North America with 2,640.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the total gross domestic expenditures for agricultural research and development are roughly $4 billion compared to $573.79 billion in wealthy countries.
Only one in four African researchers holds a PhD compared with nearly two thirds in India.
"ACCI, and its sister program at the University of Ghana-Legon, have been created to fill these gaps. But the scope of the problems are so great that current training efforts can make up only a small part of what is required," said Rufaro Madakadze AGRA's program officer for education and training. "Clearly, greater investments and support are needed."
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About the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
AGRA is a dynamic partnership working across the African continent to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. AGRA programmes develop practical solutions to significantly boost farm productivity and incomes for the poor while safeguarding the environment. AGRA advocates for policies that support its work across all key aspects of the African agricultural value chain from seeds, soil health and water to markets and agricultural education.
AGRA's Board of Directors is chaired by Kofi A Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations. Dr Namanga Ngongi, former Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme, is AGRA's president. With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK's Department for International Development and other donors, AGRA works across sub-Saharan Africa and maintains offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Accra, Ghana.