Enhancing institutional breeding capacity to develop climate resilient crops for African smallholder farmers

The overall goal is to contribute to enhanced food security and poverty alleviation by increasing smallholder productivity and income in the three target African countries.

The project will benefit 30,000 smallholder farmers, since the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP) will be linked with ongoing national agricultural strategies led by the national agricultural research systems (NARSs) and key project implementation partners. About three to five breeding programmes per institute – with 25 to 50 breeders in total across the four target institutes – will benefit from practical and applied learning in modern breeding methods as they go about implementing country agricultural plans. There will be associated beneficiaries among the additional stakeholders engaged in various aspects of the crop value chains, including small and medium-sized enterprises. The project aims to have at least 40 per cent participation by women, especially at the student level.