Sustainable capacity building of the rice value chain in Africa is essential in achieving the rice self-sufficiency and poverty alleviation. The breeding capacity enhancement has also been at the heart of AfricaRice’s mandate. Therefore, the Korea-Africa Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (KAFACI) has concentrated breeding capacity enhancement for young breeders or breeding technicians of national research institutes in the KAFACI member countries. Four-month trainings have been conducted at the Regional Training Center located in Saint Louis, Senegal. The actual practice training is as follows; First is to learn practical skills and techniques of key aspects of rice breeding which are field preparation and layout, sowing, transplanting, fertilizer application, weed control, water management, hybridization/crossing, selection, yield and yield components determination, and rice palatability testing. Second is to learn some theoretical aspects of plant breeding through lectures including basic principles of breeding, evaluation for biotic and abiotic stresses, and statistical analysis. Third is to learn about the accurate use of field and lab equipment for rice breeding. Forth is to learn about proper scientific reporting and presentation. The courses were organized twice per year following two rice cultivation seasons in Senegal. From 2019, a total of 24 trainees participated in the 4 month courses. We believe they have acquired the basic knowledge and skills to implement rice breeding activities indpendently in their countries.

The Korea-Africa Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (KAFACI) has been cooperating with AfricaRice since 2014 for the eradication of hunger and poverty in Africa through sustainable agriculture and its industrialization. At first, rice breeding activities for staple food production started with KAFACI member countries by sharing high-yielding Tongil-type rice breeding lines and varieties. The Africa Rice Development Partnership project entitled “Enhancement of high-yielding rice germplasm and breeding capacity of rice producing countries in Africa” is implemented for the period from 2016 to 2025 with three phases. The actual rice breeding activities have been conducted by applying anther culture haploid breeding technology in the laboratory and field of AfricaRice Saint-Louis center. The 1,547 elite lines selected through participatory variety selection were distributed to 21 national breeders of KAFACI member countries. These lines derived from the 1,181 cross combination and 34,616 breeding lines on Korea and AfricaRice germplasm crossed. Among them 11 new Tongil-type rice varieties have been selected and registered in the national variety catalogue of Senegal, Mali, Rwanda, Malawi, and Tanzania.

In Africa, rice is the fastest demanding staple food with a high growth rate of consumption at 4.5% per annum. Currently Africa occupies 32% of world rice imports, and pressure on rice is expected to rise in the near future. Faced with this deficit, Korea has launched the rice breeding project through Korea-Africa Food & Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (KAFACI) of which goal is to increase rice productivity through accelerated development of improved germplasm and varieties in Africa. As of 2013, the ten African member countries joined the rice breeding projects of KAFACI program; they are Cameroon, DR Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. We adopted the breeding strategy of intervarietal cross and anther culture to speed up high-yielding secondary populations using the Korean and African germplasm. Korean germplasm is composed of 1) temperate japonicas adaptable to tropical conditions of short-day length and high temperature 2) wide-cross derivatives from African wild species, O.glaberrima and O,longistaminata, and 3) tongil-type varieties. These germplasm is evaluated for adaptability in Africa and African partners make crosses with local germplasm with the best selections. Korea produce double-haploid populations from these crosses for another cycle of selection for high-yielding lines in Africa. Inter-varietal crosses and double-haploid technology could accelerate the development of high-yielding germplasm and new rice varieties in Africa within short project period.

홍진주'는 1990/91년 동계에 수원383호와 '자광벼'가 교배 된 F2 계통에 수원383호를 여교배하여 얻은 후대를 계통육종법으로 세대를 촉진시키고 각종 특성검정을 실시하면서 생산력검정을 통하여 중생 적갈색 유색미 계통을 선발하여 수원501호로 계통명을 부여하고 2004년부터 2006년까지 3개년간 지역적응시험를 실시한 결과 그 우수성이 인정되어 2006년 12월 농작물 직무육성 신품종 선정위원회에서 '홍진주'로 명명되어 중부 및 남부평야지에 적응하

Sequence-tagged site (STS) markers tightly linked to the bacterial leaf blight (BLB) resistance genes, xa5, xa13 and Xa21, were used in this study. A survey was conducted to find polymorphisms between the resistant and susceptible germplasm in rice. 500 of Korean varieties and 100 of landraces were evaluated in this study. STS marker, RG207 was used to having xa5 resistance gene of rice germplasm. 27 varieties of Korean germplasm showed resistant for xa5 gene. The RG136 an xa-13 marker resulted in a single band of approximately 1kb in all the rice accessions studied. In order to detect polymorphism, digestion of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product was performed using a restriction enzyme Hinf Ⅰ. The resistant lines resulted in two bands 0.5kb on digestion with Hinf Ⅰ, while the same enzyme did not digest the PCR product of susceptible lines. No polymorphism was detected in Korean varieties and landraces, indicating that they probably do not contain xa13 gene. pTA248 an Xa-21 marker detected a band of 1kb in the resistant lines and bands of either 750bp or 700bp in the susceptible lines. Among germplasm tested, there are no varieties and landraces with Xa21 resistant gene. The results of the germplasm survey will be useful for the selection of parents in breeding programs aimed at transferring these bacterial blight resistance genes from one varietal background to another.

Genetic background and phylogenetic relationships among 20 Korean wheat cultivars were assessed using microsatellites after amplifying with 13 SSR primer pairs. Average allele number per primer pair was 3.36. Genetic similarities for every pair of cultivars ranged from 0.42 to 0.97, with 0.69 of overall average. Korean cultivars were divided into two major groups based on microsatellite DNA polymorphisms. Group I consisted of relatively old cultivars developed until 1970s, and group II contained the recent cultivars developed during 1980s and 1990s. Amongst old elite cultivars/lines, ‘Yukseung 3’, ‘Norin 12’ and ‘Norin 72’ contributed most to the genetic background of cultivars belonging to group I, and ‘Norin 4’, ‘Norin 12’, ‘Norin 43’ and ‘Norin 72’ to group II, respectively. The phylogenetic relationship of Korean wheat cultivars was in accordance with the genealogical data of each cultivar. The genetic background of each cultivar was assessed from the point of breeding and germplasm management such as variety identification and duplicated accessions for assisting in developing a system for the registration of new variety based on the molecular characterization in future.