Better Barley by New Breeding Techniques

project summary

Barley is an important food security crop in Ethiopia, and is a priority crop for the Ethiopian Government. There is an urgent need to lift breeding activities by incorporating new breeding techniques (NBT) to reach a planned yield goal of 3.9t/ha in 2030. In this project, we do research in, and apply New Breeding Techniques/ CRISPR to speed breeding of local food barley genotypes with 1) drought tolerance, 2)fungal and 3)viral disease resistance, and with naked grains to enhance food security and market potential.
The project specifically enhance breeding of local, climate resilient cultivars. The project will educate 4 PhDs, anchored at Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, with local enrollment at Haramaya University (2) and Ambo University (2), in joint collaboration with Aarhus University.
The project team covers competences in molecular and conventional breeding, genetics, and pathology, and vast experience in barley research.
The project builds technical capacity and a broader knowledge base to enable Ethiopia to produce NBT crops, but also to handle issues related to introduction of NBT crops from other countries.
The project will generate hands on new scientific knowledge and drive the state of the art forward, also of relevance for other developing countries with similar climate change challenges and food security issues, and at the samt time it will strengthen research capacity by generation of a research network including local research stations and universities.