{"id":16735,"date":"2026-06-20T12:52:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/breeding-for-grand-challenges\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T18:49:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T18:49:46","slug":"breeding-for-grand-challenges","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/breeding-for-grand-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Breeding for grand challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"As part of the 50th anniversary celebration, IITA had mounted a one-day symposium tagged as \u201cBreeding for the Grand Challenges\u201d. This full-house event was held on 11 April at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, and attended by more than 200 collaborators from the national agricultural research system, including advanced research institutions and various universities, and private sector partners working on crop improvement.\n
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IITA\u2019s Abebe Menkir addressing the workshop attendees in Ibadan.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\nThe meeting was organized by\u00a0Robert Asiedu<\/a>, Director for the Western Africa Hub, and\u00a0Michael Abberton<\/a>, Head, IITA Genetic Resources Center.\n\nAccording to Abberton, the meeting was timely for three reasons. \u201cFirstly, the 50th anniversary of IITA provided a good opportunity to take stock of past achievements\u2026But the main purpose of the meeting was to build on this progress to move forwards. Therefore, a second reason is the recent advances in biotechnology that bring with them the chance to make faster gains in breeding. Thirdly, it has become increasingly obvious that this acceleration is indeed necessary if we are to achieve food security for Africa in the face of climate change by 2050,\u201d Abberton explained.\n\nMost of the presentations focused on two key themes: Firstly, that breeding of African staple crops must focus on quality including micronutrient composition as well as disease, pest resistance, etc. Secondly, that both classical and modern techniques can make significant progress in this regard and that the use of transgenic technology or the new and exciting genome editing methods are complementary to classical breeding and require it to reach fruition in new varieties with real impact.\n\nTopics and speakers include: Policy and regulatory issues for GMO and new breeding techniques, Dennis Eriksson,\u00a0Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences<\/a>; Current status and future prospects of breeding cassava for micronutrients,\u00a0Elizabeth Parkes<\/a>, IITA; Breeding maize for micronutrient enrichment,\u00a0Abebe Menkir<\/a>, IITA; Role of genetic engineering in crop improvement,\u00a0Leena Tripathi<\/a>, IITA; Bananas: new traits into old cultivars by genetic modification, James Dale,\u00a0Queensland University of Technology<\/a>; Capacity building for plant breeding in West Africa, Malachy Akoroda,\u00a0University of Ibadan<\/a>; Breeding to transform cassava, Eugene Terry, CGIAR Systems Management Board,\u00a0West Africa Center for Crop Improvement<\/a>\u00a0(WACCI), and @BecA-ILRI<\/a>; Advancing plant breeding education in sub-Saharan Africa: Successes and challenges, Eric Danquah, WACCI; and Consortium approach to develop and deploy sorghum enriched with vitamin A, iron and zinc for farmers in Africa: The case of African Biofortified Sorghum, Michael Njuguna, Africa Harvest.\n\nSome of the key outcomes from this one-day event were:\n