The second sorghum/millet annotation and improvement workshop, held in Nairobi (Kenya) on 19-21 January 2005 was organised by Biosciences for East and Central Africa (BecA) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
The meeting brought together 28 breeders from National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) representing 14 countries, and specialists in molecular breeding and genomics from the US, Europe and from ICRISAT. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and draft project proposals for application of marker-assisted selection (MAS) in African breeding programs on sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and the millets (Pennisetum glaucum, Eleusine coracana, and others).
The meeting was a follow-up to the one organized by the Syngenta Foundation on 12-14 November 2004 with representation of a small group of African cereal breeders and a larger group of US genetic, genomic and bioinformatics specialists, in which current genomics research tools were balanced against needs of African cereal breeding.
The Nairobi meeting produced a first draft of two project proposals: - Implementation of MAS for the stay-green trait (post-flowering drought tolerance) in sorghum.
- Implementation of MAS for downy mildew resistance in pearl millet.
Timelines were also drawn for development, submission of grant proposals, and for project initiation.
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