Potato team gears up for new project in Rwanda
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EmailThe Rwanda Agricultural Biotechnology Program aims to improve the productivity and resilience of three staple crops — cassava, maize, and potato.
PSM’s Dr. David Douches traveled to Rwanda for the launch of a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant. A new five-year project called the Rwanda Agricultural Biotechnology Program is a $10 million program that will focus on improving productivity in three crops Potato, Cassava, and Maize. It was launched on October 11, by the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) and African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) as program lead with MSU as a sub-awardee. Douches is also the director of the USAID Global Biotech Potato Partnership (GBPP) and he will utilize expertise, including PSM’s Kelly Zarka, the GBPP molecular technical lead, and Dr. Daniel Zarka, the MSU Potato program molecular research lead, to achieve the Gates project goals. For potato, one of Rwanda’s major crops, the yields are drastically reduced due to a fungal-like disease called late-blight. MSU and GBPP have already developed genetically modified potatoes showing very high levels of late blight resistance. Field testing in Rwanda will begin with MSU resistant potatoes early in 2025.
Officials and scientific research leaders launch the Rwanda Agricultural Biotechnology Program on October 11, 2024, in Kigali, Rwanda. David Douches is pictured to the right of the screen.
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