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Minutes of a Meeting Held on 2nd – 3rd November 2005 at the Hilton
Hotel, Nairobi-Kenya
1.0 Goal of
MBNet
The
overall
goal of MBNet is to contribute to a sustainable
improvement in the livelihoods of African farmers by availing improved
maize varieties.
2.0 Mission
MBNet
will create a strong plant breeding fraternity in East, Central and
Southern Africa
through
information and germplasm exchange, shared
synergy and development of new products. MBNet will therefore
enhance the
capacity of African Maize Breeders to develop new maize varieties and, in
collaboration with local
seed merchants,
strengthen the
delivery system of new maize varieties to farmers.
3.0 Objectives
The network objectives will be to
encourage
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The access of newly developed
varieties to farmers
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Continuous development of new
products (new maize varieties) for resistance to biotic and abiotic
stresses
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Information Exchange among maize
breeders in Africa
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Germplasm catalogue: This will
entail a published cataloguing of genetic materials present in each
country to enable breeders to have knowledge of elite germplasm present
in the region. In each country there will be a catalogue of released
materials and their characteristics.
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Germplasm Access and Exchange; which
will have to operate in the context of an appropriate framework. The
framework will outline logistics to access and exchange germplasm from
another country.
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Public-Private sector partnerships:
The network will encourage public-private sector collaboration through
joint collaborative activities and information on new varieties
available in participating countries. The network meetings will be
forums for muting regional expansion and operation of seed companies
across countries. Whenever a seed companies identify a need and would
like the breeders to address that specific need then, the network will
target their research to meet the desired product. If seed companies
want to initiate new operations in another country, the forum would
assist to give information on opportunities for variety marketing in
another country.
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Biotechnology Applications: MBNet
will collaborate with AMMANET to identify areas of joint research
for product delivery. Such areas of focus would be in molecular
approaches that add value to conventional breeding, e.g. disease
resistance, germplasm cataloguing or fingerprinting, and in challenging
issues such as a search for markers for the difficult traits.
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Development of proposals for funding:
MBNet will develop proposals for viable projects, and
submit for funding. The possibilities for joint proposals for contract
research will also be exploited.
4.0 Expected Outputs
New
Maize Varieties:
The network main aim is to promote product development because farmers
need new varieties. Even though a lot of new maize varieties have been
developed for Africa, there are still areas that do not have the products
that farmers require. The network will facilitate breeding for products
that are currently not existing and availing a variety for the unique
niches. Therefore targeted breeding for specific ecologies will
continue. The synergy will be expressed in the number of superior
varieties released by the breeders.
A
sustainable system for product delivery through public-private sector
partnership:
The network will
encourage close collaboration between public sector breeders and private
sector in seed delivery. MBNet envisages that breeders in the
public sector are committed to develop new varieties and acknowledge the
fact that private sector have an advantage in seed business. MBNet
envisages a model of a triangle for product oriented breeding whose edges
are the seed companies, who want to make profits; the breeder who are
inspired by recognition of intellectual property in developing superior
products; and the farmer who needs to access the best product that market
has to offer. Thus breeders must identify a niche because seed companies
need competitive varieties to sell to the farmer.
A
functional Website:
This will entail updating our website for frequent updates,
and
information exchange and announcements of new products to collaborators.
Main Features of MBNet:
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A functional home-grown network for
maize breeders in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa
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Network that has a breeders database
and information dissemination mechanism as well as creating linkages
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The network will cultivate IPR issues
and therefore ownership to innovations and inventions
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Capture of Synergy as in pests and
disease management, delivery of new varieties and regular meetings
Proposed Projects
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Public-Private partnership working
frame work
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Enhancing the accessibility of new
varieties to farmers through a collaborative effort of Breeder Seed
Production
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Fingerprinting of breeders lines
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Enhancing resistance to maize streak
disease in the region by a collaborative effort of conventional and
molecular breeding
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