Putting more sweet potato on the table in Africa
Dr Richard Gibson, Plant Pathologist at the University of Greenwich at Medway's Natural Resources Institute, has been awarded a three year grant to improve the cultivation of sweet potato in sub-Saharan Africa. The grant from the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) aims to speed up the breeding of virus-resistant sweet potatoes. Viruses cause damage to leaves and stunt growth, causing much reduced yields in sweet potatoes.
Some local varieties of sweet potato have been found to be highly resistant to a broad range of viruses. With funding under Sustainable Agriculture Research for International Development (SARID), a team of researchers from the UK, Peru and Uganda will study this resistance further and seek markers for the responsible genes. They will use this knowledge to speed up breeding virus resistant crops, particularly orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, as they contain pro-vitamin A to combat blindness in African children.
Dr Gibson will be working with colleagues from the University of Cambridge and Central Science Laboratory in the UK, the International Potato Centre in Peru, and Makerere University and National Agricultural Research Organisation in Uganda. The overall value of the project titled 'How resistant plant varieties avoid suppression of RNA silencing by viruses as exemplified by sweet potato' is £650,000.
Gareth Thomas MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development and Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and a University of Greenwich alumnus says: "This research, bringing together UK, African and Asian scientists, has the potential to revolutionise farming in the developing world and reduce global poverty."
ENDS
For images or more information, contact:
Nick Davison, Press Officer
University of Greenwich
Tel: 0208 331 8092