{"id":13060,"date":"2026-06-20T12:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/strategic-partnership-to-build-african-breeders-capacities\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T12:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:26:18","slug":"strategic-partnership-to-build-african-breeders-capacities","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/strategic-partnership-to-build-african-breeders-capacities\/","title":{"rendered":"Partenariat strat\u00e9gique pour renforcer les capacit\u00e9s des \u00e9leveurs africains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/newint.iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/image_gallery-38.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9765\" src=\"http:\/\/newint.iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/image_gallery-38.jpg\" alt=\"Image\" width=\"250\" height=\"170\" \/><\/a>The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)  and the West Africa Center for Crop Improvement (WACCI) have signed a memor andum of underst anding (MoU) aimed at training plant breeders in Africa\u2014a strategic move to boost the number of plant breeders on the continent. Under the agreement, WACCI, a center at the University of Ghana, will send postgraduate students to IITA for three years to carry out research in plant breeding. Students will have access to IITA facilities  and will be supervised by senior IITA scientists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WACCI  and IITA see this alliance as a panacea that will halt the dwindling number of plant breeders in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAfrican breeders will train on the problems facing African crops with the hope that they will remain in Africa,\u201d Prof. Eric Danquah, Director of WACCI, said on Friday in Ibadan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe need an African approach to address Africa\u2019s food productivity challenges,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the years a dearth of capacity in plant breeding has hit Africa with the best breeders training abroad but never coming back to the continent. Breeders on the continent are equally getting old  and most of them are entering retirement age. Africa, which desires to have its own Green Revolution, is plagued by a plethora of problems including biotic  and abiotic stresses that limit productivity. To address these problems, Africa needs seeds that will overcome these stresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis means breeding seeds that will perform well  and give farmers better returns in the face of these challenges,\u201d Danquah said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo get the manpower that will be able to do the task requires new thinking  and new strategies,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The alliance with WACCI will boost IITA\u2019s role in building capacity in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In its 45 years of existence as Africa\u2019s leading research partner, more than 74,000 people in Africa  and elsewhere have received training in IITA. Some of these beneficiaries today occupy strategic positions in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Kenton Dashiell, Deputy Director General (Partnerships  and Capacity Building), said that building capacities of breeders would help in ensuring food security in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He welcomed the alliance with WACCI, noting that IITA alone cannot do it all, hence, the need for partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WACCI was established in 2007 as a center for crop improvement similar to the Africa Center for Crop Improvement (ACCI) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both centers receive funding support from Rockefeller Foundation  and the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The centers recruit students from national agricultural systems of 15 countries across East, West,  and Southern Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To date, 42 PhD students from 11 countries have graduated from ACCI, 128 students have been enrolled in both centers,  and a further 30 will be enrolled in the next 2 to 3 years. Graduates have already released 23 new crop varieties in Ug anda, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique,  and Burkina Faso,  and have published 85 research papers internationally. Prof. Danquah visited IITA with Prof. Sam Kwame Offei, Associate Director of WACCI  and Provost of the College of Agriculture  and Consumer Sciences. END<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pour toute information, veuillez contacter :<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Godwin Atser, <a>g.atser@cgiar.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oiwoja Odihi, <a>o.odihi@cgiar.org<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the West Africa Center for Crop Improvement (WACCI) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at training plant breeders in Africa\u2014a strategic move to boost the number of plant breeders on the continent. Under the agreement, WACCI, a center at the University of Ghana, will send postgraduate students to IITA for three years to carry out research in plant breeding. Students will have access to IITA facilities and will be supervised by senior IITA scientists&#8230;<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[44],"news-type":[],"hub":[],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[190],"class_list":["post-13060","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","hentry","location-ghana","item-year-190"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Strategic partnership to build African breeders capacities - IITA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/strategic-partnership-to-build-african-breeders-capacities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Strategic partnership to build African breeders capacities - IITA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the West Africa Center for Crop Improvement (WACCI) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at training plant breeders in Africa\u2014a strategic move to boost the number of plant breeders on the continent. 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