$4,5 million
plant-breeding Project
THE Rockefeller Foundation, based in the USA, is to fund a $4,5 million
(R44, 3million) plant-breeding project at the University of Natal in
Pietermaritzburg, which will equip 50 African PhD students to tackle crop
breeding and improvements in their home countries.
The project director, Professor Mark Laing, of the discipline of Plant
Pathology, said the Rockefeller Foundation had been searching for a university
in Africa to train African plant breeders to practise plant
breeding in their home countries, with the long-term aim of addressing
drastic food shortages in Africa.
"We put in our proposal to train 50 African PhD students over the next nine
years, and it was accepted," said Prof Laing, adding that this was "a
big
project - even for the Rockefeller Foundation".
He said there was little plant improvement going on in Africa, and even less
breeding that is to the benefit of the small-scale farmer, who will be the
target of this project.
Training plant breeders in America or Europe had proved expensive and, he
pointed out, students were not taught to deal with African conditions and
crops. Rockefeller Foundation is offering bursaries, including travel costs, to
10 students for 2002, selected from a number of African countries. They will
complete a foundation year to come up to speed in English, as well as in any
subjects and technologies that are new and essential, followed by a year of
PhD coursework. For the next three years the PhD students will return to
their home countries to carry out their own plant-breeding projects,
assisted by South African and international supervisors.
To house the initiative the University will provide a new three-storey
building and will employ a biotechnologist, three plant breeders, an
administrator and three technicians.
Biotechnology (genetic engineering) will form part of the curriculum, in
which students will be made aware of both its power and limitations. Prof
Laing said that while biotechnology holds great promise for crop improvement in
Africa - such as the potential for inserting a drought resistant gene into maize
- "it is expensive and most African countries do not have the resources to
practice 'new-age' breeding".
He believes that the answer for Africa lies in the technique of "horizontal
resistance-breeding", as opposed to traditional breeding, the advantages of
which are that it is stable, cheap, low-tech and relatively quick.
"The aim is to constantly improve the plant, relative to the parent
population. And crop improvement in Africa translates into more food, and less
hunger and poverty."
by Michelle Paterson
From: Kathy Waddington
Media and Publications
University of Natal
Durban
Tel 0312602957/0837755607
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