Second Annual Meeting of the Africa Rice Breeding Task Force

Podcast of the 4-day sessions of Second Annual Meeting of the Africa Rice Breeding Task Force held at AfricaRice, Cotonou, Benin, 24-27 April 2012.

Breeders from national agricultural research systems of 22 African countries, AfricaRice and the International Rice Research Institute met at the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Africa Rice Breeding Task Force, Cotonou, Benin.

The objective of this Task Force is to accelerate the development and release of new rice varieties through multi-environment and multi- year trials of many promising breeding lines.

The Breeding Task Force has also been actively engaged in capacity development programs on breeding, experimental design, and germplasm database management for national researchers.

At this meeting, four days of intensive discussions led to identification of promising rice lines to advance in the screening process. The rice breeders are confident that in 2013 the first lines that have gone through this continent-wide screening process will be ready for release.

Speakers in Podcast (in order of intervention) :

Jimmy Lamo, Rice Breeder, National Agricultural research Organization (NARO), Uganda

Aiah Steven Ngaujah, Rice Breeder, Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI), Sierra Leone

Moussa Sie, Africa Rice Breeding Task Force coordinator, AfricaRice, Benin

Semon Mande, Upland Rice Breeder, AfricaRice, Nigeria

Negussie Zenna, Rice Breeder (High Altitudes), AfricaRice, Tanzania

Ibnou Dieng, Biometrician, AfricaRice, Benin

Venuprasad Ramaiah, Lowland Rice Breeder, AfricaRice, Nigeria

Maji Alhassan Tswako, Breeder, National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), Nigeria

Rakesh Kumar Singh, Africa-IRRI STRASA project coordinator and regional plant breeding coordinator for Eastern and Southern Africa, Tanzania

Paul Kofi Dartey, Rice Breeder, CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Ghana

Bello Akanke Illyath, Assistante de recherche, Institut National de Recherches Agricoles du Bénin (INRAB), Cotonou, Bénin

Bayuh Belay, Coordinator, National Rice Research Program, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Ethiopia

Raharinivo Viviane, Selectionneur, Centre National de la recherche appliquee  au developpement rural (FOFIFA), Madagascar

Innocent Ndikumana, Rice scientist/Breeder, Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), Rwanda

Raafat El Namaky, Hybrid Rice Breeder, AfricaRice, Senegal

Baboucarr Manneh, Irrigated Rice Breeder and AfricaRice STRASA project coordinator, AfricaRice, Senegal

Absa Jaw, Senior Research Officer (breeder),  National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI),  The Gambia

Marco Wopereis, Deputy Director General and Director of Research for Development, AfricaRice, Cotonou, Benin

Podcast credit : R.Raman, AfricaRice