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Cultivating Educational Capacity Is Key To Improving Agricultural Outcomes In Africa

Since its inception in 2007, breeders at the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) in Ghana have produced 23 new varieties of corn, seven new varieties of peanuts, 11 new varieties of rice and seven new varieties of sweet potato.

But the center’s most meaningful contribution to the future of African agriculture and food security are the 66 new doctorates in plant breeding the institution has trained in that time, said Eric Danquah, a plant breeder who founded the center at the University of Ghana.

Eric Danquah, a plant breeder who founded the West Africa Centre from Crop Improvement at the University of Ghana explains the center's mission at the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences International Agriculture Day celebration on April 17, 2019.

 

“(This collection of new varieties) is the outcome of training Africans in Africa to work with African crops for Africa,” Danquah, told a crowd gathered Wednesday at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ annual International Agriculture Day celebration. Danquah attended graduate school in plant breeding at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom before returning to Ghana to teach and conduct research. He was continuously saddened, he said, by the fact that the brightest students that he taught at the University of Ghana would leave for graduate school and not return home to work.

Losing great scientists to universities in America or Europe often meant that crops important to African farmers were not given the same attention in plant breeding programs. Scientists working in Africa are more aware of the trials faced by farmers on the continent and what kinds of seeds would do well in the African market. Danquah knew “a green revolution for Africa” wouldn’t be possible without researchers working in Africa with easy access to African crops and African farms.

“In a number of places, you just don’t find the needed critical mass of scientists,” he said. Without the scientific community as a bedrock, private seed companies don’t consider large investments for commercialization infrastructure, and funding agencies are less likely to award research grants, Danquah said, adding that the scientific community being created through WACCI is one of the most important catalysts for agricultural development in Africa.

“What is important about our program is that they’ve all gone back to their home institutions,” Danquah said. “We are building capacity in Africa for Africa.” 

He encouraged students and researchers at UGA to visit the University of Ghana to study or collaborate. For more information about WACCI, visit wacci.ug.edu.gh.

 

Source: http://newswire.caes.uga.edu/story.html?storyid=7946