{"id":4791,"date":"2015-10-13T15:41:21","date_gmt":"2015-10-13T20:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.generationcp.org\/sunsetblog\/?p=4791"},"modified":"2015-11-13T16:57:57","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T22:57:57","slug":"ghanas-plant-researchers-blossom-in-their-own-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.generationcp.org\/sunsetblog\/2015\/10\/13\/ghanas-plant-researchers-blossom-in-their-own-fields\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana\u2019s plant researchers blossom in their own fields"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Photo:<\/a>
The vibrant colours of a cassava leaf.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Little did some of Ghana\u2019s crop researchers know back in 2007 that they would be cultivating not just their plants but also themselves over the following seven years.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see one person being trained and then another person being trained, it doesn\u2019t mean much. But when you put all the numbers together and they see themselves as a force, as a team, I think that\u2019s where new strength lies for our African researchers,\u201d reflects Elizabeth Parkes<\/a> on the impacts of the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme (GCP)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth is a cassava<\/a> breeder in Ghana. She works for the Crops Research Institute (CRI)<\/a> of Ghana\u2019s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)<\/a> and is currently on a leave of absence working at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWherever I go, whatever opportunity I have, I refer back to GCP and its capacity-building<\/a> work. You see, it\u2019s good to release new plant varieties, but it\u2019s also good to release people,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The internationally funded GCP set out to enhance the local plant-breeding capabilities of people like Elizabeth, and so help developing nations meet ever-growing demands for food in the face of climate change and worsening drought conditions, the threat of crop disease, and other pressures.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Scientists at the Crops Research Institute (CRI) work to improve crop production in Ghana and so ensure national food security and decent livelihoods for people like this Ghanaian cassava farmer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This has meant empowering scientists with cutting-edge tools and knowledge, as well as overcoming some surprisingly down-to-earth obstacles.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that really energises me,\u201d enthuses GCP Consultant Hannibal Muhtar, \u201cis seeing people understand why<\/em> they need to do the work and being given the chance to do the how<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hannibal, under his GCP remit, was asked to visit the research sites of GCP-funded projects at research centres and stations across Africa, to identify those where effective research might be hindered by significant gaps in three fundamental areas: infrastructure, equipment and support services. He selected 19 target research sites<\/a>, in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Tanzania. Two of these were in Ghana, namely the CRI research sites at Kumasi and Tamale.<\/p>\n

The mission of CRI is to ensure high and sustainable crop productivity and food security in Ghana through the development and dissemination of environmentally sound technologies. Its research areas are broad and include maize, rice, cowpeas, soybeans, groundnuts, cassava, yams, cocoyams, sweetpotatoes, plantains and bananas.<\/p>\n

In developing countries like Ghana that the obstacles to achieving research objectives are often quite mundane in nature: a faulty weather station, a lack of irrigation systems, or fields ravaged by weeds or drainage problems and in dire need of rehabilitation. Yet such factors compromise brilliant research.<\/p>\n

Even a simple lack of fencing commonly results not only in equipment being stolen, but also in precious experimental crops being stomped on by roaming cattle and wild animals such as boars, monkeys, hippopotamuses and hyenas; this also poses a serious threat to the safety of field staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real challenge lies not in the science, but rather in the real nuts and bolts of getting the work done in local field conditions,\u201d Hannibal explains.<\/p>\n

He says: \u201cIf GCP had not invested in research support infrastructure and services, then their investment in research would have been in vain. Tools and services must be in place as and when needed, and in good working order. Tractors must be able to plough when they should plough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Cassava chips on sale in a Ghanaian market.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ghana gains a new centre of excellence<\/h3>\n

\"CRI<\/a>Elizabeth<\/a> is one of more than 10 researchers from Ghana who gained their PhDs via GCP-funded research projects. They were given the opportunity to travel to international research laboratories to learn the latest research methods, train in genotyping and establish contacts with leading scientific minds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [GCP] have made us attractive for others to collaborate with,\u201d says Elizabeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cGCP gave you the keys to solving your own problems; it put structures in place so that knowledge learnt abroad could be transferred and applied at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore GCP we really struggled, but now everybody wants to have training in Ghana. Everybody wants to have something to do with us, and I will always say thank you to GCP for that, for making us attractive as researchers,\u201d Elizabeth says.<\/p>\n

At the outset of the Programme, Elizabeth was learning how to breed new cassava varieties<\/a> suitable for African soils. She worked with scientists from IITA in Nigeria to use genetic resources (germplasm) from South America, where cassava originates, to integrate the CMD2<\/em> gene into local germplasm using molecular breeding. CMD2<\/em> gives cassava resistance to the devastating cassava mosaic disease, which slowly shrivels and yellows leaves and roots, destroying crop yields.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Elizabeth Parkes poses with a sturdy and nutritious harvest of cassava roots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cassava is a lifeline for African people, and is a particularly important staple food for poorer farmers. More cassava is produced in Africa than any other crop, according to 2012 figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. It is grown by nearly every farming family in sub-Saharan Africa, supplying about a third of people\u2019s daily energy intake in the region. This makes cassava mosaic disease a potential disaster, and makes effectively breeding improved varieties an activity with real impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started out doing low-cost marker-assisted selection<\/a>, for which we had some grants. Someway, somehow, the government got interested and brought in more resources. So together we started a small biotech lab. Now this lab has become the Centre of Excellence for West African productivity,\u201d says Elizabeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have attended three GCP Annual Research Meetings<\/a>, and I have won awards for my posters. This greatly boosted my confidence,\u201d says Elizabeth. She also continues to be an active member of the Cassava Community of Practice<\/a> \u2013 founded by GCP and now hosted by the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP)<\/a> \u2013 which facilitates and supports the integration of marker-assisted selection into cassava breeding. All this has accelerated Elizabeth\u2019s quest to produce and disseminate farmer-preferred cassava varieties that are resistant to pests and diseases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all forever grateful to GCP and its funders. GCP has had a huge impact on research in Ghana, especially for cassava, rice, maize and yam. All the agricultural research institutes and individual scientists who came into contact with GCP have been fundamentally transformed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capacity building \u00e0 la carte a real \u2018life changer\u2019<\/h3>\n

For Allen Oppong, a maize<\/a> pathologist at CRI, GCP was a life changer too: \u201cIndeed, I am very grateful to GCP for making me what I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CRI<\/a>Allen\u2019s first experience of GCP was in 2007, when he won a Capacity building \u00e0 la carte<\/em> grant for research into characterising locally adapted maize varieties. During the project he travelled to international research meetings and received training in marker-assisted selection in advanced laboratories.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure improvements funded by GCP also came at a critical time for Allen. There was a drought, which, without the irrigation systems provided through the Programme, would have meant a much longer research process.<\/p>\n

Even without drought, these kinds of improvements can dramatically speed up breeding, as Hannibal explains: \u201cBy providing glasshouses or the capacity to irrigate in the dry season, we are enabling breeders to accelerate their breeding cycles, so that they can work all year round rather than having to wait until the rain comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the support of GCP,\u201d Allen recalls, \u201cI was able to characterise maize varieties found in Ghana using the bulk fingerprinting technique. This work has been published and I think it\u2019s useful information for maize breeding in Ghana \u2013 and possibly other parts of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the biggest challenges that Allen experienced during his GCP work was getting farmers to try the new varieties that are being developed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people don\u2019t like change. The new varieties are higher yielding, disease resistant, nutritious \u2013 all good qualities. But the challenge is demonstrating to farmers that these materials are better than what they have.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
A Ghanaian farmer holds a just-harvested maize ear.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYou can have very good material that has all these attributes, but if the farmer doesn\u2019t have access to it, then how can he know the attributes that you are talking about? How can he see it when it is in your research station?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghanaian farmers generally select maize varieties for their adaptation to specific local environments. But as Allen explains, average maize yields in Ghana, at 1\u20131.5 tonnes per hectare, are well below the global average of 5.2 tonnes per hectare.<\/p>\n

Allen is looking forward optimistically to this next stage. \u201cWe have the capacity to more than double what we are producing now. The possibility is there, as long as farmers adopt the good materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u2018kick-start\u2019 for plant science and for people<\/h3>\n

The catalytic effect of international funding programmes like GCP on small research laboratories in developing countries is often underestimated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got GCP support to kick-start molecular biology research activities,\u201d says Marian Quain, a senior research scientist at CRI. \u201cIt provided us with laboratory chemicals, reagent and equipment. My lab also received funding under the Genotyping Support Service initiative to characterise hundreds of sweetpotato, yam and cassava accessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis support from GCP contributed immensely to transforming the lab.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ruth<\/a>
Ruth Prempeh \u2013 CRI researcher who was able to achieve her PhD with GCP support \u2013 hard at work collecting data in the field.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Funding injections can kick-start careers for young scientists too. In 2009, Ruth Prempeh received funding for her PhD, Genetic analysis of postharvest physiological deterioration in cassava (<\/em>Manihot esculenta Crantz) storage roots<\/em>, which was completed in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my thesis, l have prepared three manuscripts for publication. I have also had the opportunity to attend the three-year Integrated Breeding Multiyear Course<\/a>, during which l acquired knowledge and skills in data analysis, interpretation and management and also in using modern technologies for crop improvement,\u201d says Ruth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been very useful and has really had an impact on my career, making me what l am today. With this, l know l have a great future and I believe l will achieve great things. I am really proud to have been associated with GCP and very grateful for the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

More links<\/h3>\n