The University of Ghana’s West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) organized a two-day workshop for the five World Bank Africa Centres of Excellence (ACEs) in agriculture. The workshop, themed The March Toward Food Security in Africa, brought together 52 scientists, researchers and professionals from West and Central Africa._x000D_
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The goal was to facilitate the information exchange between ACEs and WACCI — a partnership between the University of Ghana and Cornell University that was established with funding from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Through the partnership, the University of Ghana trains plant breeders in Africa working on the improvement of African crops._x000D_
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Since its inception, WACCI has enrolled 82 doctoral students from West, East and Central African countries and graduated 28 highly-qualified and competent plant breeders, says Eric Yirenkyi Danquah, professor and director of WACCI. Currently WACCI has students enrolled from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda._x000D_
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According to Yirenkyi Danquah, graduates have demonstrated the value of quality plant breeding education in the region. He says the success stories of the centre have made the WACCI doctorate program a model for sub-Sahara Africa and beyond. A network of well-trained, committed and hardworking plant breeders would fast-track attainment of food security in the sub-region, he says. Source: Ghana News Agency.
