The MPhil in Plant Breeding and Biotechnology programme is one of the several programmes being run by the CSIR-College of Science and Technology. This programme is unique in that it combines Plant Breeding and Biotechnology. The two fields are complementary and the combination of the two offers extra benefit of saving cost in training and enhancing the efforts of the Plant Breeder. Students have the privileged of being taught by seasoned Research Scientists of international repute. The programme affords students the opportunity to have hands on experience.
Other unique features of the programme:
- It is linked with industry to ensure that industry relevant challenges are addressed;
- Use of Moodle Platform. This is the most widely used learning management system in teaching and learning. Lecture notes are uploaded onto this platform to enable students ample time to go through before face to face encounter with Lecturers;
- State-of-the-art Biotechnology laboratories and facilities with modern equipment;
- Extensive research fields with all year round irrigation facilities;
- Course in French Language with certificates awarded after completion and
- Problem solving thesis work based on industry and community agricultural value chain needs from communities.
I strongly believe that any student who have the opportunity to be trained at the Department of Plant Resource Development will have a lifelong experience.
Brief background to programme being run
Plant Breeding and Biotechnology have immense potential for economic development in Ghana. Both fields have the capacity to ensure food security, create jobs, create wealth and diversify Ghana’s commodities on the global market for higher returns. Additionally breeding for enhanced nutritional composition in food crops can lead to better nutritional status of the population.
The programme, aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 and 13 which sums up as “Reduction in hunger and poverty for a healthy and employed population dwelling in better climatic conditions”.
The aims of the programme are to:
- Develop manpower for innovative agricultural practices and technologies needed to mitigate the impacts of climate change on crop yields, increased pest and disease attacks, soil temperature and soil quality;
- Train and produce manpower with requisite skills to use classical and molecular breeding techniques to develop crop varieties and improved agricultural systems that are adapted to the increasingly harsh climatic conditions in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions where agricultural productivity remains low, and poverty and food insecurity remain high and
- Train and equip students with the knowledge in the application of advanced crop improvement principles; breed crops adapted to the different agro-ecological zones of the country; analyze methods to assess the stability of crops bred for biotic and abiotic stress conditions and understand genetic variation of tropical crops for genetic hybridization.
- Train and equip students with the necessary practical skills for genetic manipulation and plant breeding, selection of appropriate breeding strategies, application of biotechnological tools (molecular and tissue culture) for crop improvement and production and the application of molecular markers and their use in gene mapping and crop improvement.
- Train and produce critical mass of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology practitioners in the West-African sub-region in particular and Africa as a whole, for crop development.
- To strategically invest in the building of a strong national-regional-global team to rationalize regional resources for agricultural innovations within Africa as envisaged by the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme.
- Equip students to carry out original research which will culminate in a thesis.
- To equip students with skills in seminar presentation, public speaking and sharing of knowledge.
The Plant Breeding and Biotechnology programme aligns with the mandate of corporate CSIR “To develop, package and disseminate science and technology information” and CSIR – Crops Research Institute’s mission “To develop and disseminate environmentally-sound technologies and build capacity for high and sustainable food and industrial crop productivity to enhance food security and poverty reduction”.