The project “Sorghum breeding with Wild Relatives: Evaluating pre-breeding material with farmers in Kenya” is being carried out by Rongo University, Department of Agronomy and Environmental Sciences (DAES), in collaboration with the Aminyasa Youth Group and the Ugeneya Banana Farmer Group. The project is scheduled to take place in Kenya between 2018 and 2020.
This project aims to diversify sorghum breeding material for drought prone areas in Mali and Kenya and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the sorghum breeding efforts in Western Kenya and central Mali to address climate change using farmer participatory approaches. The project activities will build on already existing introgressed sorghum populations based on varieties that enjoy wide farmer appreciation and adoption. Tools for farmer participatory engagement in breeding will rely on previously developed and documented techniques. The research partners have established collaborative relationships with farmer organizations and are capable and interested to strengthen these interactions and their ability to effectively breed new, climate-responsive, varieties.
The Sorghum crop wild relative that will be focused on in this project is Sorghum bicolor, ssp verticilliforum race arundinaceum (Sagnard et al 2011).
