Project overview
Abstract
The sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region is on a very low pace of the achievements the nutrition and sustainable development goals. The alarming food and nutritional security situation in the region caused by the growing population in SSA and worsen by the negative effects of climate change on agri-food systems calls for innovative approaches. Yet, SSA is endowed with a huge diversity of species known as orphan crops that have the potential to address food scarcity caused by climate change due to their adaptability and nutritional value in low-input agricultural systems. Despite this potential, modern agricultural systems in SSA depends only on 1% of the crop diversity available to feed 60% of the population. Orphan crops have benefited from very limited modern scientific and technological advances. ORPHAN (Mobility for high skilled scientists and entrepreneurs on orphan crops in higher education for accelerated) Scholarship Project is an initiative of five highly qualified public universities from three African regions and one university in Europe to advance knowledge on orphan crops through digital agriculture.
Objectives
- Train 12 high-profile PhD graduates, 32 MSc graduates, 10 academic staff and 10 trainees with skills in plant breeding, food technology and nutrition to address current and future challenges related to climate change and agrifood systems with a focus on promising orphan plant species of Africa.
- Harmonize training programs and research agenda on the improvement of the value chain of orphan crops for food and nutrition security in Africa.
- Enhance national – regional – international collaboration and programmatic agenda that promotes orphan crops research and training for agricultural innovations in Africa through cross regional mobility.
Paternship : Project coordinators
CONTACTS OF LOCAL COORDINATORS
Countries | Universities | Contact Person |
---|---|---|
Côte d'Ivoire |
Université Nangui Abrogoua https://www.univ-na.ci/ |
Kévin Kouamé KOFFI, kevinkouamekoffi@gmail.com |
Benin |
University of Abomey-Calavi https://uac.bj/ |
Nadia Fanou Fogny, nadia.fanou@uac.bj Enoch Achigan-Dako, e.adako@gmail.com Nicodème Fassinou Hotègnì, nicodeme@gmail.com |
Kenya |
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology https://www.jkuat.ac.ke |
Mary Abukutsa, abukutsa.mary@gmail.com |
Nigeria |
Ebonyi State University https://ebsu.edu.ng |
Happiness Oselebe, h.oselebe@ebsu.edu.ng Catherine V. Nnamani, nnamanicatherine@ebsu.edu.ng |
Zimbabwe |
University of Zimbabwe https://www.uz.ac.zw |
Edmore Gasura,, gasurae@yahoo.com |
Belgium |
Catholic University of Louvain https://uclouvain.be |
Marie-Paule Kestemont, marie-paule.kestemont@uclouvain.be |