Despite the fact that ~80% of sub-Saharan Africa’s food is supplied by smallholder farmers, food insecurity remains a major challenge in the region. Modern biotechnologies can accelerate crop and livestock improvement on the continent, but there is a chronic lack of technical capacity, inadequate infrastructure and poor funding for R&D, particularly, in sub-Sahara African nations. We seek to bridge these gaps through the Africa Bio-Innovation Hub.
The Africa Crop-Innovation Hub is a state-of-the-art knowledge and resource hub dedicated to solving the challenges hampering innovations in crop agricultural research in Africa nations. The hub provides an enabling ecosystem to support the application of cutting-edge bio-research technologies for improving the quantity, quality and resilience of local crops to pests, disease and climate change effects.
The Hub draws on a wealth of expertise, resources and global research networks and partnerships to achieve the following key objectives:
- Strengthen agricultural research capacity – by upskilling a new cadre of scientists in African countries to develop and conduct/lead high-impact food security research-focused projects that will combat hunger and food insecurity in African nations.
- Promote the translation of breakthrough scientific discoveries into viable products and encourage investments in excellent Africa-led science and start-up bio-ventures, which will support job creation and boost Africa’s bioeconomy.
- Provide core genomics and molecular bio-laboratory services to support African researchers to generate useful research outcomes that address local agricultural needs.
- Develop robust and affordable research tools and technologies that will enhance the learning and doing of good quality scientific research in African universities.
The Africa Crop-Innovation Hub is an initiative of the JR Biotek. Our team is dedicated to using a grassroot bottom-up approach to help African nations to achieve food and nutrition security.
