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Characterizing the Ethiopian Sorghum Germplasm Collection for Drought Adaptation Traits Associated with Root and Shoot (PEARL)Large areas in Ethiopia and other African countries suffer from chronic drought, leading to food shortages. Sorghum is important as a fail-safe crop that remains productive in seasons that are too dry for other cereals. Despite its inherent drought tolerance, moisture stress is nonetheless one of the major constraints for sorghum production. This project will work to identify Ethiopian sorghum germplasm with drought tolerance, focusing on root characteristics. It will then map chromosomal regions associated with these traits, and train breeders and equip laboratories in order to build Ethiopia Start Year: 2014 End Year: 2018 Funding Agencies: - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) |
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Implementing the Breeding Program Analysis tool (BPAT)The BMGF have developed a project to utilise a Breeding Program Analysis tool (BPAT) to underpin a process to evaluate the progress of key public sector plant breeding programs in 10 staple crops (sorghum, rice, maize, wheat, cowpea, chickpea, common bean, groundnut, yam, sweet potato, cassava, banana) within 11 geographic regions. This project aims to roll out and manage the upgrade of the BPAT designed to evaluate the status of staple food crop plant breeding programs that operate in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Start Year: 2015 End Year: 2019 Funding Agencies: - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) |