Plant Breeding and Genetics

Why does Rwanda need PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics?

The seed sector is either non existent or not fully developed in most countries in Rwanda and sub-region. This is mainly due to lack of sufficiently trained people in the sector. Seed scientists are essential if a nation has to avail sufficient and healthy seeds of all crops to farmers at the right time and right place. Seed scientists and plant breeders complement each other in the development and production of improved seeds and planting materials, a necessary role in all productive National Agricultural Research Systems. To reinforce the seed sector, the private sector must be involved. The private sector will be attracted to invest in the seed industry if there are sufficient trained personnel with knowledge in seed science. The proposed project shall contribute to addressing this insufficiency of seed scientists in Rwanda and the Eastern and Central African region.

The Program goal

The main objective is to provide young men and women knowledge and skills in plant breeding and seed science with emphasis on staple foods grown by resource poor farmers in East and Central Africa to effectively improve productivity.

Objectives:

1. To train plant breeders at the MSc and PhD levels so that they can use both conventional and molecular techniques to develop superior varieties of crops that can cope with abiotic and biotic stresses.
2. To provide quality MSc and PhD training in seed science and technology to enhance production and distribution of high quality improved seeds in East and Central Africa.
3. To enhance opportunities to develop improved local varieties of the important staple food crops grown by resource-poor farmers in East and Central Africa using conventional plant breeding and molecular techniques
4. To provide the necessary skills to support local plant breeding and seed science programs to meet local needs and to respond to indigenous demands in participating countries in the sub-region.

Context

Food insecurity remains a major challenge in East and Central Africa, despite various remedies prescribed by regional governments, development agencies, and various scientists in conference resolutions and publications. Food consumption per capita per day is less than 2000 Kcal in the region while food resources per household provide less than 80% of the internationally recommended food requirement for normal healthy life. Access to adequate food supplies throughout the year by many households in the region is a nightmare, as a result of persistent low productivity and income.

In response to this food insecurity backdrop, the UN set the Millennium Development Goal number one at the beginning of the 21^st century that seeks to reduce the number of people suffering from hunger and extreme poverty to one half by the year 2015. To surmount this challenge, the sub-region needs to sustainably increase food production in order to guarantee food security, food safety and reduce poverty in the agricultural sector.

Reinforcing and reorienting plant breeding programs is necessary to address these challenges. What aggravates the problem in the sub-region is the fact that a number of food crops in sub-Saharan Africa, such as sweet potato, cassava, cooking banana and local vegetables are of little importance to researchers in the developed world and have, therefore, not received the necessary research attention. For this reason, as well as lack of trained local breeders and seed scientists, there has been limited exploitation of the available germplasm in most crops in Rwanda and in the sub-region.

The proposed program aims to avail formal degree training in Plant Breeding and Seed technology at the MSc and PhD levels to young men and women in Rwanda and the East and Central Africa region. The goal is to contribute to human resource capacity development of countries in the region to increase food production, improve food security, household income and enhance sustainable agricultural development. The M.Sc. and Ph.D. trainings in Plant Breeding and Seed technology will pay particular attention to (1) the development of superior varieties of staple crops by using conventional and molecular techniques to deal with the prevalent biotic and abiotic stresses in the highland region, and (2) the science and technology for the production, distribution and marketing of high quality improved seeds

The research focus will be on the main food crops in East and Central Africa, namely cereals (maize, rice, sorghum and wheat), roots and tubers (cassava, sweet potato and Irish potatoes), legumes (common bean, cowpea, groundnut, and soybean), vegetables (tomato, pepper, egg plant, onion, maranthus, and carrot), and floriculture (cut flowers such as Rose flowers).  

Stakeholders

NUR, RAB, ISAE, Umutara Polytechnique, NAEB, MINAGRI, INATEK, INES, RBS (only plant protection), NRB (Plant genetic resources).