Capacity development in animal breeding and genetics—Insights and opportunities from a decade of regional “training of the trainer” experiences

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT IN ANIMAL BREEDING AND GENETICS – INSIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITIES FROM A DECADE OF REGIONAL “TRAINING OF THE TRAINER” EXPERIENCES

J.M.K. Ojango, B. Malmfors, J. Philipsson, I. Dror and A.M.Okeyo

More meat, milk and fish for and by

the poor

Agri4D annual conference on agricultural research for development Uppsala, Sweden, 25−26 September 2013

Why livestock?

Food Source: High nutrient value and density

30-40 % of the world´s agricultural output produced by livestock

Livestock contribute to 70-80% of farm income in intensive crop–livestock systems

Livestock is the fastest growing part ofthe agricultural sector, largely driven by the Livestock Revolution in emerging economies

Why is capacity building in Animal Genetic Resource use needed in developing countries?

Need to double meat and milk production to meet demand for products notably in developing countries → while minimizing environmental impact

Source: Rosegrant et al., 2009

Why is capacity building in Animal Genetic Resource management & use needed in developing countries?

Productivity of many livestock populations needs to improve for food security and environmental reasons

High genetic variability between and within species and breeds BUT remains largely unexploited

Regional markets for livestock products are fast growing

Platforms for livestock data recording and information exchange are generally lacking

Shortage of people trained on AnGR!

The Project

Capacity Building for Sustainable Useof Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR)in Developing Countries

Implemented largely through Sida support

ILRI1: J. Ojango, M. Okeyo1 International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) – CGIAR institute2 Swedish Univ of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

SLU2: B. Malmfors, J. Philipsson

ILRI-SLU collaboration1999-2012

Report of the ILRI-SLUcapacity building projectpublished in Dec 2011

Authors:

http://mahider.ilri.org/handle/10568/16393

Available also as a pdf file at:

Ojango, J.M.K., Malmfors, B.,

Mwai, O. and Philipsson, J.

Main objectives of the ILRI-SLU project

Strengthen Knowledge and Skills in AnGR among scientists within National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS)

Strengthen Teaching and Communication Skills

Catalyze & Enhance Curriculum Development

Stimulate & Improve Contacts and Networking

Develop computer based Training Resource (The AGTR)

… reaches colleaguesand a large number of students,

who in turn …

Each NARSscientist/univ.teachertrained in the project…

Project Approach Training the Trainers

- by region

Training Course

(3 weeks)

Planning Activities- status and needs

of each regionRegional Focus

Similar Challenges &

Needs

Animal GeneticsTraining ResourceCD/Web

Main Activities of the ILRI-SLU Project

http://agtr.ilri.cgiar.org

Planning Activities- status and needs

of each regionRegional Focus

Similar Challenges &

Needs

NetworkingInstitutional Collaboration

New Partnerships Established

Follow-upworkshops

- by region

Developing Country

Perspective

Practical Solutions & Priorities

Project evaluations

Activties to catalyze implementation of Breeding Programs

Capacity for Animal Genetic Resource Utilization in Developing Countries

- by region

Training Course

(3 weeks)

Animal GeneticsTraining ResourceCD/Web

Main Activities of the ILRI-SLU Project

The training course given 7 times2000, 2001, 2003, 2006 (2), 2007, 2008

31 countries in Africa and 15 in Asia represented

Number trained: 138 animal breeding scientists/teachers employed mainly at universities & research institutes

Course evaluation by participants: Overall rank ave. 8.5 (scale 1-9)

Improved univcurricula in area

of AnGR

Improved teachingmethods & skills

Increased ABGinterests

Incr. particip. indevt of National& Reg. policies

on AnGR

More of regionalcollaborative proj.

for AnGRimprovement

New regional groups on AnGRin Africa & Asia

Modules withinfo for AnGR use

& improvementdeveloped

Case studies& breed info onANGR in dev.

countries

Animal GeneticsTr. Resources

Developed

Characterization,conservation &

design of breedingprograms

Impr. & expand research on AnGR.

& Sciencecommunication

Impr. practical Applications

of ABG

Teaching Networking Communication Research

Improved humancapacity base in

AnGR use

Stronger regionalnetworks of

scientists in AnGR

Increased accessto resources and

info on AnGR

Impr. designs ofbreeding strat. forAnGr cons & use

Key outcomes from ILRI-SLU project

More resources are needed to train people able to translate new knowledge into actions for sustainable use of AnGR in developing countries

→ more need to be trained (including extension staff) ”Training trainers” enables more efficient knowledge sharing

by international partners from lead institutions in ABG

Providing information on AnGR together with training on science communication and teaching methodologies isstrategic for advancing effectiveness of NARS

Partnerships between universities and national research institutes in developing countries need to be strengthened

→ collaborations should enable university staff to also carry out research, and researchers to also teach at universities

Some lessions learnt

Efforts should be made to continuously develop & retain a critical mass of qualified breeders/geneticists to design and sustainably implement breeding programs

Empower ”Champions”-(i.e. those showing leadership) to have impact at scale

Establish regional AnGR recording and evaluation platforms to support uniterupted national genetic improvement programs

Espouse international collaborations to stimulate the uptake /adoption of emerging technologies

Way Forward

The presentation has a Creative Commons licence. You are free to re-use or distribute this work, provided credit is given to ILRI.

Thank you