GSR Asian Annual Meeting in Wuhan, 8-9 April, 2010

Green Super Rice: The GSR project held in Wuhan, China.

The GSR project held its Asian Annual Meeting on 8-9 April 2010 in Wuhan, China.

It was attended by Chinese rice scientists and governmental officials, scientists from IRRI and AfricaRice, NARES collaborators, and the GSR project consultants.

The objectives of the meeting are 1) to review the progress and accomplishments of research activities across Asia; 2) to assess the promising GSR materials and their performance in NARES countries; 3) to identify the areas where improvement is needed; 4) to prepare a proper work plan for achieving the next set of milestones; 5) to identify new areas of research that may be in the interest of the collaborating partners; and 6) strengthening the GSR research activities and program for possible extension to the second phase.

The welcome and opening remarks were given by the top officials from the government of China, Huazhong Agricultural University, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and IRRI.

The first day of the meeting includes the updates and accomplishment reports from the scientists from China, IRRI, and NARES of South and Southeast Asia. The first-day meeting was held on the campus of Huazhong Agricultural University.

The second day of the meeting was held in Xiongchu International Hotel. The morning session was for the planning the next-year research activities of the NARES collaborators. In the afternoon session, research planning was done among the Chinese institutes, universities, and seed companies.

Source: http://thegsr.org/index.php/2010/04/gsr-asian-annual-meeting-8-9-april-2010/

Molecular Training Course- Africa Rice Center, Benin Mar 29, 2010

Green Super Rice: A regional training workshop ogranized by Afica Rice to upgrade the capacity of plant breeders from research centers and universities to use research methodologies applied in MAS.

A regional training workshop organized by Africa Rice jointly supported through its Green Super Rice (GSR) project and CORAF/WECARD Project on “Research methods in marker-assisted selection (MAS)” was held in Cotonou, Benin, from 29 Mar to 3 Apr 2010. MAS is a tool that allows the direct application of molecular marker to make plant breeding programs easier and more efficient.

The aim of the workshop was to upgrade the capacity of plant breeders from research centers and universities of 12 African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda) to use research methodologies applied in MAS. Africa Rice and IRD experts served as resource persons for the workshop.

The workshop, which included theoretical and practical sessions, helped the participants gained a better understanding of the importance of molecular markers in breeding. Participants were able to learn various practical techniques relating to DNA extraction, PCR reactions, thermal cycler programming and amplification, PCR product separation on agarose and polyacrylamide gels, gel staining, date scoring and interpretation.

The participants highlighted the importance of forming a network that will enable them to exchange information on MAS-related research activities in the participating countries. They also pointed out the importance of establishing functional biotechnology laboratories in their countries and regional supply system to facilitate procurement of laboratory material.

GSR-STRASA Linkage-Strengthening Workshop 23 November 2009

Green Super Rice: The green super rice and stress tolerence rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA)project held a workshop at IRRI headquarters

The Green Super Rice (GSR) and Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA) projects held a joint workshop titled Strengthening linkages on the ground for GSR-STRASA activities in Africa and Asia on 23 November at IRRI headquarters.

The workshop aimed to strengthen the linkage between the two BMGF-funded projects, identify common grounds for active cooperation in both Africa and Asia, identify approaches to realize the outputs as envisioned in the project on the ground, and ensure sound ways for timely reporting from cooperators.

The workshop was attended by about 40 participants from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, NARES of STRASA, AfricaRice, and IRRI.

Zhikang Li, GSR project director, and Bas Bouman, Program 2 leader and CESD head, formally opened the workshop. A welcome message was given by IRRI DDG-R Achim Dobermann. In the morning, the first discussion was on updates for the Asia component. Abdelbagi Ismail presented for STRASA while Jauhar Ali presented for GSR. For the Africa part, Baboucarr Manneh, AfricaRice scientist, presented STRASA updates and Eklou Attiogbevi-Somado presented GSR updates. Raafat El-Namaky, the new GSR Africa Coordinator, was also introduced.

In the afternoon session, discussions were on ways to strengthen linkages and practical steps to improve coordination and identify modes for regular reporting for the two projects.

Engr. Eugene Castro, associate scientist from IRRI Training Center, presented on the seed training conducted in East and southern Africa in September 2009. There was also a 20-minute conference call with David Bergvinson of BMGF after the discussion proper. The practical steps and mechanisms identified to improve coordination for both projects were management and coordination, research materials sharing, training and capacity building, and seed upscaling.

GSR Hybrid Rice Seed production training course in Vietnam

GREEN SUPER RICE: Dr Changxian and Dr Jauhar Ali had the series of short course training on hybrid rice seed production kick-started in Vietnam.

Dr Changxian Mao (back row, third left) and Dr Jauhar Ali (back row, forth left) at the building of Vietnamese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

The series of short course training on hybrid rice seed production kick-started in September 2009. Vietnam being the first stop of the training course proved to be successful. More than 30 local scientists and breeders attended the 5-day course which was held in Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The program of the course is downloadable under the Publication section.

Facilitator Dr Changxian Mao and Dr Jauhar Ali will be delivering the course of the same topic to the other six target countries.

Source: http://thegsr.org/index.php/category/forthcomingevents/recentevents/page/22/

Changsha Minister Forum 10-12 September 2009

GREEN SUPER RICE: Dr ZhikangLi, the director of the GSR project, was invited to present the current hybrid rice techonology in China. A Ministerial forum was held between September 10 -12 in Changsha, Hunan province.

The “Green Super Rice” project was presented to audience comprised of international diplomats and ministerial officials in the light of introducing the project to the government official level.

A Ministerial Forum on the topic of Foreign Cooperation in China’s Hybrid Rice, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and the Hunan Provincial People’s Government, was held between September 10 and 12 in Changsha, Hunan province.

The Forum focussed on three topics: 1) Hybrid rice technology and world food security, 2) International investment and cooperation in agriculture and 3) China’s foreign aid agricultural technology demonstration centre for sustainable development. Dr Zhikang Li, the director of the GSR project, was invited to present the current hybrid rice technology in China, in particular, Dr Li spoke of the mega international project “Green Super Rice” which utilizes hybrid rice technology to achieve the project’s charitable goal of aiding food security.

The forum was attended by ministerial-level officials from Africa, Asia, Latin America and other 18 countries. Diplomatic envoys to the countries concerned, FAO, the World Food Program and other international organizations, representatives of the countries concerned, ministry officials, relevant agencies, business representatives and rice research experts from more than 100 participants also attended.

Source: http://thegsr.org/index.php/2009/09/329/

Progress Monitor- Beijing, China 7-9 September 2009

GREEN SUPER RICE: Dr Jauhar Ali, the GSR coordinator of Asia, has been visited to CAAS in Beijing.

Dr Jauhar Ali, the GSR coordinator of Asia, reported to Dr Zhikang Li and Dr Shaobing Peng the progress of the GSR project in currently conducting in Asia.

During his visit, Dr Ali reported the results of the first and second adaptation trials conducted in IRRI and in various Asia NARES respectively. Dr Ali has been traveling extensively to those Asia target countries between July and August 2009 to monitor the growth of the GSR lines. Dr Ali reported the strength and weaknesses of the existing infrastructures in the target countries, the cultural differences and suggestions of improvements. These information would help the GSR team greatly to design experiments that will be more specific to the countries’ needs.

From October 2009 onwards, Dr Jauhar Ali and Dr Chang-Xiang Mao of the Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences will travel to Vietnam, Pakistan, Laos and Sri Lanka to deliver short course trainings on the topic of hybrid rice seed production.

Source: http://thegsr.org/index.php/category/forthcomingevents/recentevents/page/24/

Progress Monitor- Yunnan province 8. 2009

GREEN SUPER RICE: Yunnan province is one of the four GSR target provinces of China. Chinese scientists visited the trial station in this province in August 2009.

Yunnan province is one of the four GSR target provinces of China. The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Myanmar (Burma), Laos, and Vietnam. Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with high elevations in the northwest and low elevations in the southeast, and it is for this reason that the GSR aims to breed rice varieties that can adapt to the special ecological nature of Yunnan province.

In August 2009, Chinese scientists from the GSR project visited the trial station in Yunnan province to inspect the progress of adaptation trials that are currently conducting.

Source: http://thegsr.org/index.php/category/forthcomingevents/recentevents/page/25/