Busio Mavankeni smiles brightly as she describes the crop she is working on, the Bambara Groundnut. The nut – in fact, a bean — is a “backyard crop” grown by nearly 70% of small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe. Despite being highly nutritious, the Bambara Groundnut has been little researched.

“Some call the Bambara a complete food,” says the plant breeder from Zimbabwe. But there are challenges: it is a long-season crop, taking about 140 days to mature in an increasingly variable climate. Mavankeni is studying the crop’s genetic structure in the hopes of creating a new breed that grows more quickly, has better disease resistance, and is more tolerant to drought. 

Mavankeni has learned those advanced scientific techniques at the African Plant Breeding Academy (AfPBA), where she is among the first class of trainees. The Academy – which is run by the University of California at Davis, funded by the African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC), and hosted at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi – graduated its first class of plant breeders in December 2014. 

Mavankeni and her peers, who hail from 11 countries across the continent, are the first of many graduates. Over the next five years, the Academy aims to train 250 plant breeders and technicians in techniques to create improved planting materials for African smallholder farmers.

“The bulk of the crops we focus on are important to the rural livelihoods of people who practice subsistence farming,” says Alice Muchugi, manager of the Genetic Resources Unit at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). “We can make a significant change to ensure that these crops are better agricultural products, [that] they can grow faster and be bigger and more nutritious.”

Mavankeni says that she has learned a lot during the six weeks she has spent at the AfPBA. “Usually we breed conventionally. Here we have been exposed to new technologies that speed up the process. That will help me in terms of developing better products.” 

“We talk of food security, yet not many people have access to enough food,” Mavankeni adds. “This program targets the crops that are important to the African people. They will benefit from it.”

When she returns to Zimbabwe with the knowledge she gained from the AfPBA, Busiso intends to scale up her research on Bambara. “Using what I’ve acquired here, especially the experience with genotyping, I’ll speed up my group. Very soon you’ll be hearing of an improved variety of Bambara from Zimbabwe!”

Eleven countries and 21 participating institutions were represented at the training, which is funded by Mars, Inc., and supported by the African Union through NEPAD and the AOCC. Other partners include the Beijing Genomics Institute, which is sequencing the plant material, Google, iPlant Collaborative, Life Technologies, and the University of California, Davis.

Recruitment is currently underway for the African Plant Breeding Academy’s second class. AfPBA’s goal is to train practicing African agro-scientists in the most advanced theory and technologies for plant breeding. The six‐week program will be delivered in three two‐week classes, with the first session beginning in Nairobi, Kenya, in June 2015. For more information, please see pba.ucdavis.edu. Applications are due by February 15, 2015.

This article was adapted from a post on the Agroforestry World Blog that was written by Bryony Bidder.