Seeds of capacity building in Africa's agriculture (25/05/07)
 

Success in preventing food shortages in Africa will be achieved only if farmers maintain a wealth of seed diversity that can cope with ever changing rainfall patterns.

In recognition of this, new initiatives are emerging that will hopefully bring about a green revolution, and ensure food security in Africa. Seed banks have been identified as part of the solution. They preserve seed diversity, and can provide the raw genetic material to develop improved plant varieties.
 
 
 

In April this year, the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the United Nations Foundation announced a joint initiative to safeguard 21 of the world's most critical foods crops by preserving their seeds.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose five year plan aims to provide African farmers with improved and adaptable crop varieties has emerged as a major source of funding for the initiative, putting forward US$37.5 million in grants.

The initiative will cover many 'orphan' crops such as sorghum, millet, yam, cassava and cowpea.

The initiative will also fund a comprehensive global information system that will allow plant breeders everywhere to search gene banks worldwide including existing banks in Ethiopia, Rwanda and the southern Africa region for traits needed to combat new diseases and cope with climate change.

"The initiative will secure at-risk collections [of important food crops] in poor countries and document their astonishing diversity, making it available to meet the food needs of the poor," said Cary Fowler, executive director of Global Crop Diversity Trust.

Current initiatives are not just about saving current crops there are also plans to improve them.

A new partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation has allocated US$150 million to improving seeds - including cassava, millet and sorghum through conventional breeding to increase their yields and make them suitable for Africa's unpredictable rainfall patterns.

Source: SciDev.Net

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