CROP breeders from 14 African and Asian countries, who met in Tanzania, have resolved to enhance genetic gain and saturate the market.
The breeders, working on grain legumes and dryland cereals on the continent, will be scaling up seed breeding for industrial purposes to turn around the situation.
They met for two weeks at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) in Arusha for a course on breeding approaches for enhancing genetic gain when Africa is emphasising the application of science and technology to bring about agricultural transformation.
Director of Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) Selian, Dr Joseph Ndunguru, noted that there was a need for training more scientists and breeders especially those in Africa on how to access and utilise genomic tools for crop improvement.
“Africa is laying emphasis on the application of science and technology to bring about agricultural transformation for significant contribution of the sector to the GDP (grain legumes and dry land cereals), which is very low.
There is need to train our scientists and breeders especially those in Africa on how to access and utilise genomic tools for crop improvement,” he said.
The director noted that despite a lot of genomic resources published in high impact journals and publication, the use of the information was still low in crop breeding, thus causing a big gap between the information and its conversion into crop breeding field, which he said must be changed.
Dr Chris Ojiewo from Science of Discovery to Science of Delivery (ICRISAT) pointed out that there was limited data to influence informed decision-making about market segmentation for various purposes and that adequate data was also needed for putting a strong case of profitability of new varieties.
He urged the breeders to ensure quality that would build trust of farmers in authenticity of seeds. He explained that workable seed systems were crucial for agricultural development and food security.
In sub-Saharan Africa, it can take several years to register new seed varieties in a particular country.
This is often true even when the varieties are already available in neighbouring countries or member states of common trading areas such as East African Community or Economic Community of West African states.
Slow registration contributes to restricting smallholder farmers’ access to improved seeds, hence limiting their ability to increase crop yield.
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)’s, Godfrey Chigeza, who is an expert in breeding soybeans, noted that in Africa few breeders had ventured into the seed business.
He urged breeders to wake up and create networks and partnerships to broaden their horizons. “We have become like people who cook and give food to other people.
It is high time we moved out of the kitchen to be seen, speak for ourselves, engage policy makers and establish businesses that will work for our farmers,” he noted.
Trainers were from Myanmar, Tanzania, India, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Uganda, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Egypt.
