Unleashing the force

by savitri Mohapatra

The Africa Rice Breeding Task Force responds to the call for an improved research and extension capacity on the continent through a collaborative approach to rice breeding
ice breeders in subthat will build much-needed Saharan Africa (SSA) rice breeding capacity, facilitate are an endangered access of African rice breeders species, according to Dr. to new materials, stimulate rice Moussa Si, Africa Rice Center germplasm evaluation across (AfricaRice) senior scientist. the continent, and, in general, Since classical plant breeding shorten the time needed to deploy is no longer fashionable, very new climate-resilient and stressfew students are taking up this tolerant rice varieties for major discipline, he remarked. Even production systems in SSA. the handful of rice breeders who The international are working in national programs agricultural research centers today are generally above 45 years (IARCs) cannot do this alone nor old. can the NARS, said Dr. Si, who A survey, which was is the overall coordinator of this conducted among AfricaRices Task Force, which is supported by member countries, verifies his the joint IRRI-AfricaRice Japanobservation. It showed that even funded breeding project. a country the size of Nigeria has Dr. Si described the only two rice breeders. Africa Breeding Task Force as a needs trained rice breedersmost partnership of rice breeders African countries have none, said from NARS and IARCs in Kofi Annan, chair of the Alliance Africa, which will provide for a Green Revolution in Africa, synergy to breeding efforts pointing out the lack of national across the continent, thereby sOMe MeMBers of the africa rice Breeding task Force team (from left capacity in rice breeding. increasing impact. To enhance to right): Ms. Bernice Bancole, laboratory technician; Mr. abdoulaye sow, agronomist; Dr. Mamadou MBare Coulibaly, chair; Breeding task Drawing attention to the communication and collaboration Force; Dr. Jimmy lamo, vice-chair, Breeding task Force, and Dr. Moussa desperate lack of research among all the partners of the si, coordinator, Breeding task Force. and extension capacity, which Breeding Task Force, a dedicated threatens to impede the progress Web site has been developed. (See in developing Africas rice sector, www.africarice.org/afribreed/.) of critical mass, and ownership by the participants of the Second Africa Rice national agricultural research systems Congress, held in March 2010, urged The scope of the force (NARS). The Breeding Task Force covers mainly African governments and their partners The Africa Rice Breeding Task Force the four mega-environments in SSA to substantially strengthen the training In response to this call, the Africa Rice the rainfed lowland, irrigated, upland, and retention of new staff. Breeding Task Force was launched in and high-elevation ecologies. The The Congress also called for the June 2010 to regroup scarce human challenges in these mega-environments revival of the successful Task Force resources devoted to rice breeding in are many and breeders must be able approach, introduced by AfricaRice in Africa and help build a new generation of to tackle these challenges through the 1990s. The Task Force consists of rice breeders across the continent. improvements in productivity, stability an Africa-wide collective research for The main thrust of the Breeding and adaptability and grain quality of rice. development effort on critical thematic Task Force is to adopt a systematic Responsibilities for the different areas in the rice sector, based on the collaborative approach to rice breeding mega-environments have been divided principles of sustainability, buildup
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Rice Today October-December 2011

among AfricaRice and IRRI breeders conditions. This feature is a bit like the are expected to enhance the quality of based in Africa, who work closely with Olympic Games, Dr. Kumashiro said. evaluation. their NARS colleagues. The second unique feature is that the This will result in increased The main thrust of the Breeding breeding lines will be cultivated at many credibility on recommended varieties as Task Force consists of a 3-phase sites and exposed to not just a few but well as credibility of data accumulated. We expect that this will shorten the time evaluation of rice breeding lines from many breeders from different institutes. The multiyear and multilocation trials lag between the completion of breeding IARCs and NARS, starting from the and the official approval for regional trial, then national varietal release, Dr. Kumashiro trials, and participatory Multistage regional Trial network stated. varietal selection trials (a rice Africa Rice Breeding Task Force Training programs for garden followed by 2 years breeding, experimental design, of mother/baby trials). These Lines developed by ongoing AfricaRice Varieties dveloped by Projects STRASA, GSR, GCP, Japan Rice and germplasm database trials are done in multiple NARES, IRRI, CIAT Breeding, etc. management have been locations in different countries organized to upgrade the skills (please see the map of Africa of rice researchers, including a Rice Breeding Task Force trial training course held at IRRI in sites). Regional trials 500 lines/year Breeding October 2010 for rice breeders The International Network Task Force from various Asian and for the Genetic Evaluation of 100 lines/year National trials African countries as well as a Rice (INGER)-Africa plays a training workshop organized by key role in the multiplication AfricaRice in December 2010 and distribution of new seed 50 lines/year Rice garden to introduce the principles and for in-country hotspot testing Multilocation trial Baby trial 5 nominated lines/year new concepts of the experimental and participatory varietal Multilocation trial Baby trial planning for plant breeding. testing trials and genotypeThe Task Force will also environment analyses. support MSc and PhD students, Takashi Kumashiro, Recommendation to target countries and link up with Global Rice regional theme leader of 1 2 Science Scholarships (GRiSS) GRiSP Themes 1 and 2 and leader of the AfricaRice and other types of scholarships. Program on Genetic Diversity Map of africa rice Breeding task Force trial sites. and Improvement, explained Spotting the champions that one of the unique features The key to the success of the of such an approach is that Africa Rice Breeding Task Force the breeding lines that enter will be timely and quality data the Task Force are provided collection, management, and by not one but many institutes interpretation for sound decisions such as NARS in Africa as on moving germplasm forward well as IRRI, the International in the various trials, according to Center for Tropical Agriculture Dr. Kumashiro. If that is done (CIAT), and AfricaRice. well, smart G E (genotype For example, in 2011, by environment) analyses will the breeding lines nominated enable us to select promising for the lowland regional trial breeding lines to proceed to the High elevation consisted of 13% lines from the next phase, that is, spot potential Irrigated lowland NARS, 34% from AfricaRice, Olympic champions early. Rainfed lowland 14% from IRRI, and 39% from Hopefully, these Olympic Rainfed lowland and upland CIAT. champions will help remove Upland The Task Force thus some barriers toward improved enables the evaluation of many quality and quantity of rice breeding lines with prior production on the continent data on performance from and put Africa on the map of kilometers different sources under different potential sources of rice food biophysical and socioeconomic security in the world.

1 2

Theme 1: Harnessing genetic diversity to chart new productivity, quality, and health horizons. Theme 2: Accelerating the development, delivery, and adoption of improved rice varieties.

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