Today, 16th October, is World Food Day, and this year’s theme is ‘The right to food’. In this issue of GCP News, we are delighted to announce a new GCP project to improve tropical legumes. We also give an update on the 2007 GCP Annual Research Meeting and a genotyping workshop, both held last month, plus announcements of interest.
Food for thought as legumes step into the limelight in the tropics
Laden with nutrients and with a high commercial potential, legumes hold great promise for fighting hunger, increasing income and improving soil fertility. However, legumes thus far have not received the scientific or funding attention needed to increase smallholder farmers’ yields in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, enhance their food security and reduce poverty: plenty of food for thought.
A new cross-continental research and development project turns the limelight on legumes. The Tropical Legumes Project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was officially launched in September 2007 in Rustenburg Kloof, South Africa, and in Arusha, Tanzania. Tropical Legumes involves 14 African and Asian national agricultural research programmes in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Mali, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
The first prong (Tropical Legumes I or TLI) focuses on sub-Saharan Africa and four legumes. It is led by GCP, in collaboration with partners from national research programmes, universities and CGIAR centres. The four TLI legumes are beans, cowpeas, groundnuts and chickpeas.
The second prong (TLII) focuses on large-scale breeding, seed multiplication and distribution,primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, thus paving the way for the research results from TLI to translate into breeding materials for the ultimate benefit of resource-poor farmers. In addition, TLII also works on soybeans and pigeon peas, and is led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) on behalf of two other CGIAR centres—the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
For more details on Tropical Legumes and a brief introduction to TLI, visit: http://www.generationcp.org/latestnews.php?i=889
Tropical Legumes I project launch meeting
18-22 September 2007, Rustenburg Kloof, South Africa
This meeting resulted in comprehensive product delivery plans for the TLI project using GCP’s Delivery Plan Kit. As part of capacity-building which is an integral part of the project, partner needs in bioinformatics and research equipment were also assessed. For more on the launch meeting, see http://www.generationcp.org/tli_project_launch_meeting_1822_septem.
GCP Annual Research Meeting 2007
12-16 September 2007, Benoni, South Africa
This year was a first for the ARM on African soil, with the good support of the African Centre for Gene Technologies. The ARM brought together about 150 scientists for five full days of fruitful and lively interactions. With GCP now in its third year, there was clear evidence from project presentations that GCP research is now generating concrete products. You can view the presentatations at: http://www.generationcp.org/arm.php#project_presentations.
Field visits
Participants also visited farmers in the field at three different sites. See brief reports on the field visits at: http://www.generationcp.org/arm.php#field_trip
Poster session
More firsts were to follow. For the first time, the poster session was incorporated in the formal programme with a fun blend of the traditional and non-traditional. Poster presenters revived forgotten skills from another era: before participants viewed the posters, each presenter had a 60-second slot (and not a second more!) at plenary to ‘sell’ their poster to the audience with the help of a good old traditional transparency and ovherhead projector, but absolutely no PowerPoint! After viewing the posters, participants cast their votes for each of the four ARM themes. You can see the titles and authors of the winning posters at: http://www.generationcp.org/arm.php#posters
Other meetings
This year’s ARM had several side meetings, and was followed by two major meetings. Side meetings included a bioinformatics workshop, a workshop on allelic diversity for orthologous candidate genes (ADOC) organised by Dominique This (CIRAD) , and—by popular demand after the plenary presentation by Claire Billot (CIRAD)—a demonstration of DARWIN software.
Hot on the heels of the ARM came two major events also held in South Africa. The first one, on 17-18 September, was a GCP-sponsored workshop conducted by Bioversity International on the international treaty on plant genetic resources for agriculture (PGRFA), and its implications for the GCP community, entitled ‘Managing the GCP in a Post-International Treaty World’. The second meeting (18-22 September) was the official launch of the new GCP project for improving tropical legumes, reported above.
For a general overview of the ARM, see http://www.generationcp.org/arm.php . If you prefer to see it in pictures, proceed to http://www.generationcp.org/gallery/index.php?album=4
Genotyping Support Service Workshop
24-28 September 2007, Zaragoza, Spain
The purpose of the workshop, which was organised by GCP in collaboration with Instituto Agronómico Mediterráneao de Zaragoza (IAMZ), was twofold: i) to work on data submitted in pilot phase proposals for genotyping support; and, ii) to apply acquired knowledge into crop breeding. For a fuller brief, go to: http://www.generationcp.org/latestnews.php?i=870 We’ll be posting more resources shortly.
Announcements
Survey: Interactive Resource Center & Helpdesk
The USAID-GCP-Cornell Interactive Resource Center & Helpdesk requests your help in priority-setting through a brief survey to assess user needs, especially those of scientists in Africa. The online questionnaire is at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=j8n3s0ubzCwhsp8TXobwnQ_3d_3d
Deadline: 31 October 2007.
For more on IRC, visit http://irc.igd.cornell.edu/
Global Crop Diversity Award Scheme 2008: Call for Proposals now open
The Global Crop Diversity Trust is initiating a competitive grants scheme to support the evaluation of genetic resources. The Trust will provide approximately 20–25 grants annually, to enable breeders and others screen germplasm collections for important characteristics. More details at: http://www.generationcp.org/latestnewsother.php?i=872
Workshop: Association mapping for plant improvement of inbred and outcrossing species
As part of the 2007 REDBIO Biotechnology, participants are invited to attend this workshop on 24 October. The subject is a new topic of interest within the field of genetics, covering an introduction, statistical analysis and examples of association mapping in crop species. More details at: http://www.generationcp.org/latestnewsother.php?i=886
Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook of Best Practices
Prepared by, and for, policy-makers, public research leaders, technology transfer professionals, licensing executives and scientists, this IP management handbook offers up-to-date information and practical strategies. Details at: http://www.iphandbook.org/
For previous issues of GCP News, please see http://www.generationcp.org/enewsletter.php.
I hope you find the above news and resources helpful. Your feedback is warmly invited.
Sincerely,
Antonia
Antonia N N Okono
Communications Manager
Generation Challenge Programme
c/o CIMMYT, Apdo. Postal 6-641, 06600 Mexico D.F., Mexico
Km 45 Carretera Mexico-Veracruz, El Batan, Texcoco, Mexico
Tel. +52 55 5804 2004, ext. 1313
Fax +52 55 5804 7558/7559
Email: a.okono@cgiar.org
GENERATION: Cultivating plant diversity for the resource-poor
A CGIAR Challenge Programme