The Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) signed a Host Agreement with the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP) on 12 October 2017 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The Agreement was signed by Dr Harold Roy-Macauley, AfricaRice Director General, and Dr David Hoisington, Chair of the IBP Board of Directors in the presence of representatives of both organizations and special invitees.
By virtue of this agreement, the assets of the IBP in Africa will be hosted and managed within AfricaRice in Côte d’Ivoire, including potential new funding projects for building capacity of national research programs in the area of rice breeding. Both institutions strongly wish that this agreement, which serves as an important milestone in their partnership, would mark the beginning of a series of new opportunities for joint activities.
“Africa needs to urgently modernize rice breeding and make it more efficient and cost-effective so that smallholder farmers can have access to improved and resilient rice varieties to face a changing climate. As AfricaRice coordinates a continent-wide rice breeding taskforce to strengthen the research and development capacity of national systems of its member states, this partnership with IBP comes at an opportune moment,” said Dr Harold Roy-Macauley.
Members of the IBP Board of Directors took this opportunity to hold their annual meeting at AfricaRice in Abidjan from 11 to 13 October 2017. This was an ideal occasion to meet local partners and users of the IBP services.
IBP Board and Management felt that it was most appropriate to select AfricaRice as the venue for the Board meeting, considering AfricaRice’s important role as a Regional Hub of IBP. AfricaRice and the IBP share a common vision, emphasizing collaboration, the development of a community of practice and the empowerment of plant breeders.
The IBP provides technological tools and knowledge while AfricaRice facilitates their deployment to breeders in the national programs thanks to its wide network of partnerships.The IBP, with its broad experience in developing plant breeding tools and AfricaRice with its expertise in research and development of the rice value chain, will combine their efforts to modernize rice breeding in Africa.
“We are very excited about our partnership with AfricaRice and the achievements made in the region in terms of dissemination of the best practices in plant breeding. We hope that this will be translated into a concrete and rapid impact in the fields of local farmers,” confirmed Dr David Hoisington.
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About AfricaRice
AfricaRice is a CGIAR Research Center – part of a global research partnership for a food-secure future. It is also an intergovernmental association of African member countries. The Center was created in 1971 by 11 African countries. Today its membership comprises 26 countries, covering West, Central, East and North African regions, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Uganda. AfricaRice headquarters is based in Côte d’Ivoire. Staff are located in Côte d’Ivoire and also in AfricaRice Research Stations in Benin, Liberia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania. For more information visit: www.AfricaRice.org
About the Integrated Breeding Platform IBP
The Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP) is a not-for-profit entity whose mission is to help accelerate the delivery of new crop varieties, in the context of an increasing demand for food and unprecedented environmental challenges. It does so by providing IT tools, crop breeding services and training to breeders, especially those in developing countries, so that they may fully join in the global effort towards achieving food security in the context of climate change. We believe that access to the right tools and opportunities will help breeders achieve more efficiency in crop improvement, and therefore have a concrete and direct impact on their specific local environme. www.integratedbreeding.net
About IBP regional hubs
Institutions or programmes hosting Regional Hubs are privileged partners of the IBP who are working together as part of dynamic regional networks. They provide support in the use of modern tools – the Breeding Management System (BMS) – and services, mainly through capacity building, technical support and crop-specific expertise. Their role is to champion IBP tools and services in their region and to facilitate adoption by new users, having themselves integrated its methods to their day-to-day activities. Hubs also play a key role in interacting directly with local users to inform them of the development of new BMS functionality and usability features consistent with their expressed needs.
For more information:
Ms Savitri Mohapatra
AfricaRice Head of Marketing and Communications
S.Mohapatra@cgiar.org
Ms Valérie Boire
Communication Manager
Integrated Breeding Platform IBP
Audio podcast : Click on the web link to listen to distinguished speakers at the signing ceremony
- Dr Jean-Marcel Ribaut, Director, Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP)https://tinyurl.com/ydcpga2y
- Dr Yté Wongbé, Directeur général, Centre National de Recherche Agronomique (CNRA), Côte d’Ivoire https://tinyurl.com/y9mn4z3w
- Dr Jonas Chianu, Principal Agricultural Economist, African Development Bank (AfDB)https://tinyurl.com/y7q8lfao
- Dr David Hoisington, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP) https://tinyurl.com/y8dhwb8m
- Dr Harold Roy-Macauley, Director General, AfricaRice https://tinyurl.com/y6wp689p
Photos :
- Scenes from the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP) board meeting and AfricaRice-IBP signing ceremony https://tinyurl.com/y8zm6ac3
Related information:
An IBP – AfricaRice Case Study https://tinyurl.com/y83s7ptb
Une étude de cas IBP – AfricaRice https://tinyurl.com/y82o39v2
AfricaRice Press Releases 
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