Role of universities in development of improved crop varieties, seed production, dissemination and impacts: case studies of dry, canning, snap and runner beans, pigeonpea and onions.
Abstract
Mandates of universities in east, central and southern Africa have considerably changed
from their traditional teaching and research roles, to greater active involvement in the
development agenda of their countries, a phenomenon referred to as the ‘third mission’.
This has necessitated a change in national laws to better anchor the third mission. For
example in Kenya, a new Universities Act (2012) was enacted, which demands universities
to play a more active role in national development over and above their traditional teaching
and research roles. Universities hold probably the highest concentrated pools of highly
trained manpower in virtually all key disciplines essential for diverse facets of national
development but which has hirtherto been underutilized. In agricultural sciences, universities
have played pivotal role in the development of improved crop varieties, seed production,
dissemination and impact creation in the last two decades. A review of bean (Phaseolus
vulgaris L), pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan Millsp), onion (Allium cepa L.) and runner bean
(Phaseolus coccineus L) improvement activities in Kenya from 1985 to date showed that
University of Nairobi breeders developed and released eight dry bush bean varieties, three
pigeonpea varieties including Africa’s first short duration pigeonpea variety NPP 670, four
bulb onion varieties, Kenya’s first three climbing bean varieties with high yield potential and
market preferred grain types; the first biofortified bean varieties (four bush and three climbing
bean types) in Kenya and eastern Africa. The first locally developed snap bean and canning
bean varieties in eastern Africa are being validated by the regulatory authority and are
expected to be released in 2014/2015. The first locally short-day vegetable and dry grain
runner bean lines are in advanced yield tests. Bean germplasm developed at the University
of Nairobi was distributed to more than 32 countries in six continents between 2000 and
2013. Dry bean and snap bean lines have been in released in several countries in east,
central, southern and west Africa. A wider impact strategy and market led breeding strategy
developed by the institution and its partners has been adopted in more than 25 African
countries and helped to reach more than 5million households with bean based technologies
between 2003 and 2010.
URI
https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/FullTextPDF/2017/20173009507.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11295/103439
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
The following license files are associated with this item: