Читать книгу Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding - George Acquaah - Страница 43

Beyond WACCI's primary mission of producing an equipped and analytical mass of plant breeders and seed scientists crucial to Africa's agricultural transformation, WACCI, in collaboration with industry, educational partners, and donor agencies undertakes projects targeted at breeding resilient and high‐yielding varieties of some staple crops across Africa. WACCI's breeding programs thus create an enabling platform for plant breeders to develop varieties and for students to have hands‐on experience in variety development. Smallholder farmers in the regions WACCI serve are major producers of these widely grown staples and efforts at breeding high‐yielding varieties for approval and release by governments across the regions climax engagements with not only farmers at the individual and communal level but also with ordinary Africans and their governments across varying scales vis à vis established extension services. The breeding initiatives thus move beyond training crop improvement experts to engaging communities. The major breeding programs at WACCI include: Maize Breeding Program, Tomato Hybrid Trials, Soybean, Cowpea, and Groundnut Improvement, and Sorghum Research Programs. Highlights of the maize breeding program are presented below.