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West African Breeding Networks and Extension Empowerment (ABEE)

Last update: 15 March 2024

One of the nine DeSIRA projects involved in DISSEM-INN, the ABEE project focuses on plant breeding.

The DeSIRA initiative
Launched at the One Planet Summit in Paris in 2017, the “Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA)” initiative is supported by European Commission’s Directorate for International Partnerships (DG INTPA). By funding more than sixty projects worldwide, this program aims to promote innovation in agriculture and transformation of partner countries’ agri-food systems to make them more resilient to the effects of climate change. Through the original concept of “action-research” for a “development smart innovation”, it seeks to promote a science in partnership that meet development challenges.

Description

The aim of the ABEE project is to contribute to a sustainable increase in agricultural productivity, farmers' income and food and nutritional security in the context of climate change and demographic pressure. More specifically, the goal is to achieve the following results:

  • A new generation of breeders and researchers will be trained under this project in order to support the modernisation of breeding in the region.
  • Through this initiative, breeders will be empowered to generate and disseminate climate-resilient dry cereal varieties that can be adapted to the local and commercial realities for farmers and producers.

In short, the project aims to implement a better coordinated approach to varietal selection, at the regional and national levels, by placing breeders of five target crops (millet, sorghum, fonio, groundnut and cowpea) from three countries (Burkina Faso, Niger, and Senegal) at the heart of action to improve and modernise their selection practices and to better respond to market demand.

Countries concerned

Senegal, Niger, Burkina Faso

Length

2020 - 2024

Actors involved

  • Coordinator: CORAF 
  • Platform in partnership for research and training (dP): dP-IAVAO 
  • Partners: ISRA/CERAAS, INRAN, INERA, CIRAD, AR/IBP
  • Funding: DeSIRA initiative (DG INTPA/UE)

Last update: 15 March 2024