Secondary Navigation
Goals and Objectives
Mission
To train plant breeders with capacity to lead the conversion of genetic and molecular discoveries into innovative solutions that result in improved varieties to benefit agriculture in West Africa.
Vision
Agriculture in West Africa underpinned by innovation in conventional and molecular plant breeding.
Goals
The goal of the West Africa Center for Crop Improvement (WACCI) is to improve food security for the poor in Africa. The approach is to train African plant breeders in Africa to develop superior varieties of African crops, using both conventional and molecular breeding technologies to deal with problems such as abiotic and biotic stresses.
Objectives
The overall purpose of the WACCI is to train the next generation of West and Central African plant breeders in an African university, to breed crops in national agricultural research stations, for production systems in the two sub-regions. The objectives are to:
- significantly improve the quality of PhD level training in plant breeding offered to students from universities in West and Central Africa
- create opportunities to develop improved local varieties of the staples grown by smallholders in the sub-regions, using the advances in plant breeding science and molecular biology, and informed by farmers’ stated preferences
- provide the necessary skills to direct and manage local plant breeding programmes to meet local needs, and to respond to indigenous demands
- develop breeding techniques appropriate to address some of the unique breeding/crop improvement objectives for the sub-regions
- create a de facto network of functioning plant breeders and their local co-supervisors from the sub-regions