Читать книгу Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding - George Acquaah - Страница 36

Conversations between academics¹ from the University of Ghana and Cornell University, USA, in the spring of 2006 opened doors for the establishment of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) at the University of Ghana in 2007. At the time of the conception of WACCI, the Rockefeller Foundation was also exploring the possibility of replicating the African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI), University of KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa, in West Africa to train plant breeders to serve as the cadres of an alliance needed to spark an African Green Revolution in West Africa through the development of improved and resilient varieties of the staple crops for productivity gains in farmers' fields. The WACCI model is to train plant breeders in Africa, working on African staple crops in African environments, for food and nutrition security in Africa. This model develops excellent scientists specialized in plant breeding and reverses the brain drain syndrome that has plagued Africa. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which was launched in 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya, following investments by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, accepted a proposal to establish WACCI at the University of Ghana after a scoping study led by Dr. Eugene Terry, formerly of the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) now Africa Rice. Dr. Eugene Terry's report recommended the establishment of West Africa's Africa Centre of Crop Improvement at the University of Ghana and named Dr. Eric Yirenkyi Danquah, a Professor of Genetics at the Department of Crop Science as the Founder and Director for the leadership role he played in the events leading to the establishment WACCI. WACCI was then established as a semi‐autonomous Centre in the School of Agriculture at the University of Ghana in June 2007. The Centre is now one of the constituent units of College of Basic and Applied Sciences following re‐organization of the management structure of the University of Ghana in August 2014. WACCI has evolved into one of the largest institutions for plant breeding education in the world and a model of excellence in Africa to be replicated across the continent.