From Business Ghana

The West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Ghana is making strides in the training of plant breeders in PhD programmes to help Africa to solve food insecurity, especially, in the sub- region.

Food insecurity which has become the most important problem for West Africa due to climate change effects like increased droughts and changing rainfall patterns continue to be a major concern for the more than 300 million people of the 16 states in the region.

Seventeen (17) per cent of people in West Africa are facing food insecurity, while 30 per cent of the people live below the poverty line while 10 per cent of food is wasted.

The situation is more compounded with low breeding capacity and low productivity of crops and plants in the region.

WACCI, a brain-child of Professor Eric Danquah, Director of the Centre, was re established in Ghana in 2007 with funding from Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to equip plant breeders with knowledge and considerable field experience to lead the conversion of genetic and molecular discoveries into innovative solutions that would benefit agriculture in West and Central Africa.

Briefing Pan African media personnel who are in Ghana to study the assistance of AGRA to WACCI in Accra on Tuesday, Prof Danquah said currently the training programme has students from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Senegal.

The first batch of eight PhD students graduated in June.

He explained that WACCI programme, a partnership with University of Ghana and Cornell University of the US, offers four-year training with foundation courses and modules in plant breeding, genetics, biotechnology and related subjects.

Read more at Business Ghana