The West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) has been selected as one of 15 Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) project by the World Bank. WACCI was selected after a rigorous, transparent, and merit-based evaluation process in accordance with highest international standards by the coordinating institution of the project, the Association of African Universities (AAU).
Forty-five (45) recognized international and African experts, including many from the African diaspora teaching in Europe and the US evaluated the submitted proposals. The evaluation consisted of three discrete sets of assessments; desk evaluation, external evaluation, site and leadership evaluation. All evaluations followed the pre-defined and disclosed criteria on potential development impact in the region, educational and research excellence, leadership, partnership, inclusion of disadvantaged groups, and fiduciary capacity. Each proposal was evaluated by 6 independent evaluators. The ACE project seeks to promote regional specialisation within areas that address regional development challenges, and strengthen the capacities of institutions to deliver high quality training and applied research.
WACCI is to receive about $8 million to bolster postgraduate programmes, improve curricula, attract top researchers, offer specialised courses for research scientists, produce more research, and work with industry and other academic partners in the region. According to Professor Eric Danquah, the Director of WACCI and Principal Investigator of the ACE project, WACCI will continue to admit students into the innovative PhD in Plant Breeding programme aimed at training plant breeders who would be in the forefront of developing superior climate-smart and resilient varieties of the staple crops to increase productivity in West and Central Africa in the fullness of time. The Centre will also run a Masters programme in Seed Science and Technology (SST) to complement the plant breeding programme from August 2014. Working with about 20 National Agricultural Research Institutions in the sub-region, advanced institutions, the private sector and farmers, 30 PhD students in Plant Breeding and 30 MPhil students in Seed Science and Technology will be trained between 2014 and 2019.The Centre will also expand, modernize and strengthen the maize and cowpea breeding programmes to develop improved varieties for release to resource-poor farmers in different agro-ecological zones in Ghana and beyond. The Biotechnology Centre of the University of Ghana will be resourced to provide support services for genotyping genetic resources and a platform for the training of students. Faculty and student exchanges will be promoted under the ACE project to strengthen research collaborations with advanced institutions. Students at WACCI will be connected to mentors at International Agricultural Research Centres and other advanced institutions to provide them with the exposure needed for modern plant breeding. It is expected that all of the graduates from WACCI will remain and work in the national agricultural systems. This will be a panacea to the brain drain syndrome, which is characteristic of training our scientists in universities and other advanced institutions in Europe and North America. For sustainable intensification of crop production, there is the need to develop plant breeding capacity and comprehensive breeding strategies that incorporate traditional breeding methods and advanced genomic tools important in accelerating the development of superior, higher yielding, nutritionally fortified staple crops with resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Thus, the region needs skilled local plant breeders and seed scientists and technologists trained in their working environment in national breeding programmes in their home countries.
The West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), www.wacci.edu.gh, a partnership between the University of Ghana (UG) and Cornell University, USA was established in June 2007 with initial funding from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to train Plant Breeders at the University of Ghana. The first cohort of eight students graduated in July 2013 and have all returned to their home institutions and are already accessing grants to release improved varieties to staple crops. Currently, 46 students are enrolled and an additional 13 students will enroll in January 2014. By the end of the ACE initial project in 2020 about 90 plant breeders and 30 seed technologists would have trained at WACCI. Strategies to sustain WACCI as the pre-eminent institution for the training of plant breeders and seed scientists and technologists in Africa are well underway. An endowment fund of $30 million dollars is to be launched in 2014 as a first step. Institutions interested in partnering with WACCI to take its work to a higher level may contact edanquah@wacci.edu.gh.