Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Enhancing training and research mobility for novel crops breeding in Africa


Applications invited for MSc and Academic / Administrative Staff exchange in Orphan Crops breeding

MoBreed (Mobility for Breeders in Africa) is an initiative of five public universities from three African regions and one university in Europe to advance knowledge on useful crops of Africa and increase scholars’ capacity in addressing food security. Partners include the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin and Ebonyi State University in Nigeria (West Africa), the Jimma University of Ethiopia (Eastern Africa), the University of Namibia and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa (Southern Africa) and Montpellier SupAgro in France.

Funded by the Intra – Africa Mobility Scheme, a mobility program developed by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACAE) of the European Union, MoBreed aims at harmonizing trainings programs among its founding partners on plant breeding and educating high profile breeders who can promote the underutilized crops in Africa to tackle food security issues on the continent. Through this mobility program, students will receive high quality training on the latest technologies of plant breeding. Harmonization of working procedures will allow the recognition of curriculum and credits among the partner universities. Staff of these universities will also have the possibility to take part to this program in order to advance their knowledge on the orphan crops targeted by MoBreed.

15-17 May 2018. Jimma University College of
Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (JUCAVM)
Workshop on Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme
Ten priority underutilized crops will be promoted by MoBreed. Discover our priority species list.

Farmers in Africa, though they cultivate well-renowned species such as maize, rice or potato, also produce orphan crops that offer a better adaptability to climate change. However, research programs have for a long time neglected these crops, which have demonstrated their potentials to sustain agriculture resilience against diseases, droughts and other stresses. MoBreed is committed to train breeders who will develop, improve and promote the aforementioned crops, most of them listed among the 101 underutilized food crops in Africa by the African Orphan Crop Consortium (AOCC).

Lecturers and partners of MoBreed are senior researchers and members of the African Plant Breeding Academy (AfPBA). They will deliver MSc and PhD programs to the MoBreed’ scholars, and supervise jointly scholars’ research. These training programs are among the best degree and non-degree programs delivered by the plant breeding and agricultural departments of the partner universities. Profiles of our top scientists are available here.

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