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Seven WACCI students graduate with PhDs in plant breeding

By GNA
Science Seven WACCI students graduate with PhDs in plant breeding
JUL 23, 2016 LISTEN

By Kodjo Adams, GNA
Accra, July 23, GNA - The fight against food insecurity and malnutrition in Africa received a major boost as seven students graduated from the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) at the University of Ghana with PhD degrees in Plant Breeding.

The ceremony is the 4th graduation of Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) sponsored students with a total number of 35 graduates since its inception in 2007.

The students were selected from six African countries namely Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya and Niger and were part of the post-graduate students of the University of Ghana, who graduated at a congregation held in Accra, on Friday.

WACCI was established at the University of Ghana, with funding from the AGRA to train 40 students in plant breeders in the West African sub-region at the PhD level.

The funding is a ten-year programme, expected to end in 2017, expressing the hope for possible extension.

Professor Eric Yirenkyi Danquah, Director of WACCI, said the Centre was optimistic that the graduates will make transformative contributions to crop breeding not only in West Africa but across the entire continent.

Prof Danquah said the Centre aims at developing human resources with the ability to generate improved crop varieties adapted to the West Africa sub-region with farmer preferred traits.

He said although the Centre was established to cater for West Africa region, it currently hosts students from outside the region attracted by the quality of education and the popularity of the programme.

He said the programme also aimed at strengthening Africa's seed system would help the graduates to use the knowledge acquired to develop new crops at their various countries in ensuring food security and meet nutritional needs.

WACCI's programme involves two years of course work plus three years of field research, adding that, the first year course work included plant genetics, crop improvement, biometry, quantitative genetics, molecular genetics and biotechnology in plant breeding, plant microbial interactions and disease control and plant stress physiology.

Dr Rufaro Madakadze, Programme Officer in charge of Education and Training at AGRA, congratulated the students on their achievement and urged them to apply the skills they have acquired to improve food security in Africa.

''AGRA, through its capacity building function, believes that the development of human resources in plant breeding to drive variety development was a critical component in achieving an agricultural transformation in Africa'', she added.

Dr Adofo Boateng, one of the graduates from Ghana, said she investigated the development of high yielding and stable maize hybrids tolerant to low soil nitrogen and thereby help provide a solution to produce maize with little fertilizer.

She said the programme has offered her the coordination and project management skills and access to global networks and intends to continue her mentoring programme aimed at encouraging girls to pursue agriculture as a career.

Dr Ouedraogo Nofou, from Burkina Faso, said the training would enable him to research further into reducing the risk of famine and also contribute to food security in his country.

The graduate students are Dr Salifou Mohamadu, Dr Perpetua Okoro, Dr Princilla Adofo-Boateng, Dr Sory Sissoko, Dr Dorcas Olubunmi Bitoye, Dr Nofou Ouedraogu, and Dr Atemkeng Nkoumku.

GNA

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