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Millet Improvement
| Improving access
to technology Eritrea project |
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In 2006, more than 1,400 farmers planted Kona
ICRISAT and Hagaz NARI, two new varieties of pearl millet.
Overview
In 2006, more than 1,400 farmers planted Kona ICRISAT and
Hagaz NARI, two new varieties of pearl millet. The varieties
were screened and bred by Negusse Abraha, millet breeder
for the Ministry of Agriculture, National Agricultural
Research Institute (NARI) at Halhalle.
First released three years ago, the
new varieties are crosses between local landraces and
material provided by ICRISAT. The seeds are superior to
local landraces in that they mature earlier, show greater
downy mildew resistance and, under actual field conditions,
produce 30% higher grain yields.
“The high acceptance
and adoption rates have increased and stabilised production,“
explains Negusse, “with enough millet seed distributed
to cover 1,000 hectares.” Capacity-building initiatives
are carried out by the project with the University of
Asmara Department of Geography and College of Agriculture.
The collaboration has recently been labelled by the President
of the University as “a model partnership.”
At the University,
the tissue culture research and training laboratory –
the first of its kind in Eritrea – was inaugurated this
year. The laboratory gives the country the capacity to
propagate virus-free potatoes more quickly and efficiently.
Nearly 30 students have been trained in the technique,
along with technicians and scientists from Eritrea’s National
Agriculture Research Institute.
The curriculum was developed
by Dr Lê Công-Linh of the Swiss Federal Agriculture Changins
Research Station, an expert on the micro-propagation of
potatoes. Most recently Dr Lê Công-Linh supervised local
experts, and the first Eritrean student to receive an
MSc in tissue culture, conferred with distinction.
The
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Laboratory, installed
by the project four years ago, has been successfully integrated
into the University’s curriculum. Some 300 undergraduate
students attend surveying and cartography courses, while
management of the laboratory and geo-processing has been
handed over to the University.
The laboratory is also
the site of a ‘distance learning’ pilot programme, linking
GIS with universities in the UK.
On-the-job training in GIS techniques has taken place
at the laboratory for staff from the Water Resource Department
and the Department of Mines, and donor organizations,
such as the International Committee for the Red Cross
and Deutsche Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit
(GTZ), using GIS techniques to support decision-making.
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UNDERSTANDING MILLET
Millets refers to a group of annual grasses
mainly found in the arid and semiarid regions of the
world.
GRANTS
Crop research funded by SFSA aims to
develop new technologies to improve yield and reduce
the risk of crop failure.
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