UK funds £20 million climate research programme in Africa

A new UK government-funded initiative will put £20 million behind leading-edge research to better understand Africa’s changing climate and the use of climate change information in decision-making across the continent.

Africa’s climate is one of the least-researched and poorly understood in the world, but looks set to change significantly in the decades ahead.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that temperatures could warm up to 6^oC on the continent this century, and vast areas could experience more intense drought or rainfall than known before.

Governments and the private sector currently plough US$70 billion into infrastructure investments in Africa each year.

There are major questions over whether these investments will be resilient to the climate of the future.

Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) is supporting five major research projects to develop better climate information for Africa and to test how the new information could be used in decision-making.

FCFA is a joint programme of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Natural Environment Research Council.

Dr Tim Wheeler, DFID’s Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, said: “FCFA will not only improve the climate information available to African decision-makers, but it also aims to work with both scientists and stakeholders across the continent to ensure that information is better tailored to users’ needs and to strengthen the skills of users in the interpretation and use of climate information”.

“African societies are already affected by climate change including sustained droughts, deadly floods and rising sea levels, which entrench poverty and undermine economic growth,” said Stefan Raubenheimer, Director of FCFA’s Coordination, Capacity Development and Knowledge Exchange unit. “The Future Climate for Africa programme will provide high quality climate information to help governments and businesses make more climate-resilient investments. The programme will safeguard economic development and contribute to the fight against poverty in the long term.”

For full descriptions of the research awards, visit: www.futureclimateafrica.org

Cassava breeding research receives $25.2M lifeline

Cassava, a rough and ready root crop that has long been the foundation of food security in Africa is finally getting the respect it deserves.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) are investing $25.2 million to improve the staple crop’s productivity and build human and technical capacity for plant breeding in sub-Saharan Africa.

The five-year project is hosted by Cornell University with five partner institutions: the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) in Uganda, National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) in Nigeria, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria, Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) for Plant Research in New York, and US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California.

“Next Generation Cassava will give breeders in Africa access to the most advanced plant breeding technologies to deliver improved varieties to farmers more rapidly,” said Peter Kulakow, cassava breeder and geneticist with IITA, one of the project’s three Africa-based partner institutes.

The project will ensure that cassava genetic research is on a par with other top food crops such as wheat, rice, maize and potato.

“Partners on the Next Generation Cassava Breeding project will use a state-of-the-art plant breeding approach known as genomic selection to improve cassava productivity for the 21^st century,” said Ronnie Coffman, Cornell professor of plant breeding and genetics, director of International Programs, and the principal investigator on the multi-partner grant.

 

“Increased support for strengthening the research capacity in Africa and harnessing novel technologies are critical to improving overall agricultural productivity and food security for poor people,” said Yona Baguma, project coordinator for NaCRRI who aims to unlock the potential of cassava in Africa and mobilize a whole new generation of cassava growers.

Dr Chiedozie Egesi, assistant director at NRCRI and head of cassava breeding, said "Next Generation Cassava provides a great opportunity for us to harness the power of modern science for faster delivery of best-bet cassava varieties for smallholder farmers.”

Cassava breeding is typically a lengthy process; it takes almost a decade to multiply and release a new variety. Genomic selection can shorten breeding cycles, provide more accurate evaluation at the seedling stage, and give plant breeders the ability to evaluate a much larger number of clones without the need to plant them in the target environment. Using genomic selection, new releases of cassava could be ready in as little as six years.

Africa’s small farmers produce more than half of the world’s cassava, or about 86 million tons from over 10 million hectares.

The tough woody plant is predicted to be one of the few crops that will benefit from climate change. It requires few inputs and can withstand drought, marginal soils and long-term underground storage. A cash crop as well as a subsistence crop, the storage roots of this perennial woody shrub are processed, consumed freshly boiled or raw, and eaten by people as well as animals as a low-cost source of carbohydrates. No other continent depends on cassava to feed as many people as does Africa, where 500 million people consume it daily.

The cassava team at Cornell also includes scientific leader Jean-Luc Jannink, research geneticist with the US Department of Agriculture and adjunct professor in the department of plant breeding and genetics, and Tim Setter, chair of the department of crop and soil science.

In addition to using the latest genomic information from cassava sequencing to improve productivity and yield, project partners will incorporate cassava germplasm diversity from South America into African breeding programs, train the next generation of plant breeders, and improve infrastructure at African institutions.

They will also hold awareness-building workshops for farmers, scholars, researchers and policy makers.