Legon Receives $5m Grant
THE UNIVERSITY of Ghana has received a $5-million project support grant from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) for the establishment of a West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI).
AGRA is a dynamic partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, working across the continent to improve the livelihood of millions of small-scale farmers and their families.
WACCI on the other hand, is a collaboration between the University of Ghana and Cornell University, USA, to train 40 PhD students from the West African sub-region in Plant Breeding and Genetics over a five¬-year initial period.
Eight students will be admitted each year in the initial phase and they will undertake a five-year programme of study leading to a PhD degree.
The first batch of students will arrive in January 2008.
The mission of WACCI is to develop plant breeders with capacity to lead the conversion of genetic and molecular discoveries into innovative solutions that will result in improved varieties to benefit agriculture in West Africa.
A statement issued by University of Ghana's Public Affairs Directorate and signed by the Acting Director, Mrs Stella Amoa, said WACCI will be equipped with the necessary capacity to train PhD students with the ability to breed West Africa food crops for increased yield and food security by incorporating genes for tolerance or resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.
The statement added that the University of Ghana was selected to host the programme because of its outstanding resources, coupled with its innovative approaches in teaching and research in the areas of plant breeding, genetics and biotechnology.
Professors Eric Danquah and Kwame Offei, Deans of International Programmes and School of Agriculture respectively, through their collaboration with the Institute for Genomic Diversity and Department of Plant Breeding, Cornell University, over the past two years, have been instrumental in the establishment of WACCI at the University of Ghana.
The Programme will be led by Professors Eric Danquah and Kwame Offei of the University of Ghana and Professor Vernon Gracen of Cornell University, the statement said.
“WACCI will operate as an autonomous Centre in the College of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences under the School of Agriculture and will have a Steering Committee appointed by the Vice-Chancellor to advise on the overall strategy of the Centre.”