{"id":17245,"date":"2026-06-20T12:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/iita-builds-capacity-of-nars-to-conduct-quantitative-genetics-and-advanced-plant-breeding\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T17:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T17:52:15","slug":"iita-builds-capacity-of-nars-to-conduct-quantitative-genetics-and-advanced-plant-breeding","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/iita-builds-capacity-of-nars-to-conduct-quantitative-genetics-and-advanced-plant-breeding\/","title":{"rendered":"IITA builds capacity of NARS to conduct quantitative genetics and advanced plant breeding"},"content":{"rendered":"The capacity of thirty-three plant breeders from the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) of eight African countries has been upgraded to competently take on the demands of advanced plant breeding using the latest technologies.\n
\n\n\"Picture<\/a>\n

Bruce Walsh from the University of Arizona: I have a real passion for teaching students in Africa.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\nThrough a training coordinated by\u00a0Ismail Rabbi<\/a>, IITA\u2019s Molecular Geneticist\/ Breeder and organized by IITA\u2019s Capacity Development Office (CDO) in Ibadan from 5 to 9 September, the breeders from the Gambia, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda learnt about\u00a0Advanced Plant Breeding and Quantitative Genetics<\/em>\u00a0from Bruce Walsh, a renowned authority from the University of Arizona. The curriculum covered recent tools in Genetics and Statistics as well as\u00a0Quantitative Trait Locus<\/a>\u00a0et\u00a0Association Mapping<\/a>.\n\nWalsh described the training as \u201cchallenging but essential\u201d. He added \u201cI have a real passion for teaching students and I really enjoy teaching in Africa. The students actively participate and are keen about learning\u201d.\n\n\u201cThis course is vital for breeders\u2026IITA hopes to regularize this training annually as a contribution towards creating opportunities for the skills of several African plant breeders to be improved. This, we believe, will assist us in our mission to tackle the challenges facing African agriculture and food security,\u201d Rabbi said.\n\nZoumana Bamba, Head CDO also said that the researchers need to be up to date in the challenging world of plant breeding, hence the training.\n\n\u201cThe constantly changing environment and new knowledge and technologies in plant breeding require that IITA invests in continuing professional development for scientists. We (IITA) are investing to keep scientists abreast of new knowledge, techniques, and developments and for them to be keenly aware of the changing landscape of agricultural research to improve IITA\u2019s research-for-development agenda\u201d.\n\nStanley Nwachukwu, IITA Training Manager also counseled the researchers. \u201cThis is a great training from IITA, do not abuse the opportunity, use the acquired skills efficiently and come out better after this training\u201d he said.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The capacity of thirty-three plant breeders from the National Agricultural Research Systems<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":17246,"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":[2181],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[32],"news-type":[],"hub":[61],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[194],"class_list":["post-17245","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bulletin-no-2343plant-breedingquantitative-genetics","location-nigeria","hub-western-africa","item-year-194"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/17245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/17245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22751,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/17245\/revisions\/22751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17245"},{"taxonomy":"science-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/science-area?post=17245"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=17245"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=17245"},{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=17245"},{"taxonomy":"hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub?post=17245"},{"taxonomy":"crop","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/crop?post=17245"},{"taxonomy":"impact-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/impact-areas?post=17245"},{"taxonomy":"item-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/item-year?post=17245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}