Annual Report 2012 - African Agricultural Technology Foundation

AATF Annual Report 2012
41
in Ghana and Uganda. Pipeline 3 is expected to generate six marker-free
lines and nine marker-bearing lines in early 2013.
Trials also continued at the International Centre of Tropical Agriculture
(CIAT) during the year. Six transgenic lines together with the wild type
Nerica-4 were characterised for agronomic and physiological traits
under different nitrogen applications. These traits revealed that there
was considerable difference between the transgenic lines and the wild
type at different nitrogen applications. The transgenic lines produced
higher grain yields at 50 and 100 percent nitrogen more than the other
lines including the wild type. Seeds produced from these trials will be
tested in a CFT in Ghana.
The NEWEST Rice Project
was launched in 2008 to develop
and deploy farmer preferred
and locally adapted genetically
improved African rice varieties
with enhanced agronomic traits,
specifically NUE, WUE and ST.
Rice production in Africa has
been characterised by low yields.
The average grain yield is as
low as 2.2mt/ha, compared to a
potential yield of 7mt/ha. This
21 million tonnes
Africa’s annual rice consumption
14.5 million tonnes
annual rice production in Sub-
Saharan Africa
USD$ 1.7 billion
value of rice imported annually in
Africa
The NEWEST Rice Project team members at the CFT site in Namulonge, Uganda during a regulatory
compliance training held in November 2012
Deploying agricultural technologies for farmers