The Business of Plant Breeding in Africa – demand-led and market-driven approaches to develop new varieties and new crops for African agriculture

Please join us for a seminar on The Business of Plant Breeding in Africa – demand-led and market-driven approaches to develop new varieties and new crops for African agriculture, followed by afternoon tea. 

📅 Date: Monday, 17th November 2025
🕓 Time: Seminar from 2-3pm, followed by afternoon tea until 3:30pm. 
📍 Location: Frank Fenner Seminar Room, Frank Fenner Building, Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU. 

The seminar will provide insights to highly innovative research and innovation approaches having impact in Africa, including; multi-country public-private partnership facilitated through the Pan-African Bean Research Alliance, the 2023 African Food Prize winner; the Pan Africa Demand‐led Breeding (DLB) initiative which is increasing the rates of adoption and cultivation of new crop varieties in Africa which better respond to farmer preferences and market demands; and Bomvitae Agro Industries Limited (BAIL) a spinoff delivering the novel intergeneric sorghum x maize wide cross agricultural invention. 

Prof Gabrielle Persley from the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability at the University of Queensland will introduce our speakers, and David Shearer, the Crawford Fund for Food Security’s ACT Committee Coordinator will chair the event.

The seminar features prominent African research leaders:

🌟 Dr Jean Claude Rubyogo, Director, Pan African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA)

🌟 Professor Shimelis Hussein, Director African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI), the University of Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa

🌟 Dr Alexander Bombom, Principal Research Scientist, National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), Uganda and co-founder, Bomvitae Agro Industries Limited (BAIL). 

This is your opportunity to hear from these African agricultural specialists for this seminar, Q&A session, and free networking opportunity.

Numbers are limited – registration is free but required for catering purposes so please register by COB Friday 14 November 2025.

BIOGRAPHIES

🌟  Dr Alexander Bombom is a Principal Research Scientist at the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) in Uganda and co-founder of Bomvitae Agro Industries Limited (BAIL) a spinoff of the novel intergeneric sorghum x maize wide cross agricultural invention. Dr Bombom served with the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA)-International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Hub, Nairobi, Kenya as lead project scientist; visiting scholar, Institute of Cereal Crop Improvement (ICCI) Tel Aviv University, Israel, and visiting scholar at the Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., USA. His research interests in cereals sciences explore opportunities for diversified use and application of neglected and underutilized crops in Africa such as sorghums with a foresight to integrate circular principles and business models in the value chain. Alexander has recently been appointed Head of Program, Cotton Research at the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO)-National Semi-Arid Resources Research Institute (NaSARRI) in Uganda. He holds a BSc. in Agriculture, MSc. Crop Science, and PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

🌟 Professor Shimelis Hussein is Professor of Plant Breeding at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), and Director of the African Centre for Crop Improvement at UKNZ, South Africa. His research interests are in genetic improvement of crops for yield gains and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. He mentors a dedicated team of the next generation postgraduate students in Plant Breeding and Crop Science. He has published over 400 articles and supervised to graduation of 63 PhD and 38 MSc students from across the countries of Africa.  These graduates from the ACCI are recognized as experts in the breeding of several crops. They are dedicated to developing superior crops to enhance food production, nutrition, resilience and economic development in some 20 countries of Africa. Shimelis is a founding member and leader within the Pan Africa Demand‐led Breeding (DLB) initiative. This initiative is introducing the concepts of demand-led breeding to a new generation of plant breeders in Africa. The DLB aims to increase the rates of adoption and cultivation of new crop varieties in Africa which better respond to farmer preferences and market demands. The DLB initiative involves some 400 plant breeders and educators in more than 20 countries across Africa. It promotes the business of plant breeding, using market‐led approaches and product profiles to design new varieties of food crops important to the continent. These include ‘orphan crops’ that often do not receive high priority within more global breeding programmes but are essential for food and nutritional security within Africa.

🌟 Dr Jean Claude Rubyogo is the Leader of the Global Bean Program and Director of the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT. In addition to his science leadership role, Jean Claude is a highly accomplished and impact-oriented researcher. He leads multi-country public-private partnership seed systems. He focuses on developing/optimising and deploying demand-led and impactful seed systems. For instance, between 2003-2023, over 42.5 million farmers (58% being women), accessed improved bean varieties in Africa. The initiative expanded to other legumes, such cowpea and groundnut, as well as sorghum. Jean Claude has published extensively, contributing hundreds of articles, books, and book chapters on bean seed systems and technology delivery models. He is active team members of Africa educators who promote the demand-led breeding and equip young breeding with tools to develop farmer and market demanded varieties. He has authored/co-authored more than 100 publications.

MORE ABOUT PABRA

The Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) is all about beans. We believe that beans can improve the food security, income and health of smallholder farmers and urban dwellers across Africa, as well as contribute to improved soil fertility. We also believe that by increasing the competitiveness of bean markets, we can provide consumers with better products and contribute to the economic growth of our member countries. We work with more than 350 partners and members across 30 countries to do just that. Together, we deliver better beans for Africa.

PABRA is facilitated by the The Alliance of Bioversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

As result of its impactful research, PABRA has received several prestigious awards, including:

(1)   Africa Food Prize in 2023

(2)   Al-Sumait Prize for Africa Development

(3)   Winner of the 2023 Outcome impact case Report in the Alliance