Two Cornell alumni with deep ties to plant breeding efforts in Africa were recognized for outstanding work building capacity to improve food security on the continent.
Ronnie Coffman, Ph.D. ’71 and Joe DeVries, Ph.D. ’95 received the Distinguished Award for Meritorious Service from the African Plant Breeders Association (APBA) Oct. 26 at the APBA conference in Rwanda.
“I commend Dr. Joe DeVries and Dr. Ronnie Coffman for their selfless service to plant breeding capacity development in Africa,” said Eric Danquah, president of the APBA. Danquah is director of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) and a visiting scientist in Cornell’s Department of Global Development.
“From the visionary and catalytic work of Dr. Coffman and Dr. DeVries emerged a vigorous and sustainable model to train African plant scientists on African crops right in Africa,” Danquah said.
The award honors Coffman and DeVries for their achievements fostering the establishment of African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI) in 2001 and WACCI in 2007. ACCI, based in South Africa, and WACCI, based at the University of Ghana, Legon, have each emerged as African powerhouses for the training of elite plant breeders.
Coffman and DeVries partnered on the concept of an advanced training program dedicated to the plant sciences that could compete with graduate programs found in the U.S. and Europe. Inspired by a lecture given at a global plant breeding conference by Danquah, a Ghana-born plant breeder trained at Cambridge University, the scientists collaborated on the prospects of an Africa-based program attractive to the most talented African scientists. Data showed that African-born scientists who trained in the U.S. and Europe often remained after graduating, depriving Africa of scientists with the advanced training needed to breed improved local crops essential to food security in Africa. Coffman and DeVries, working together with Danquah and others, aimed to coalesce funding necessary to attract top African scientists to train in Africa.
“The dream at that time was to build a competitive plant science program in Africa, for Africa,” Danquah said. “Through our partnership with Cornell, that dream has become reality.”
Backed by funding from the Alliance for a Green Revolution (AGRA) and support from Cornell, Danquah launched WACCI at the University of Ghana, Legon in 2007. Since its inception, the program has graduated 95 doctoral students and 30 students with advanced master’s degrees in plant science from 19 countries in Africa. Dozens of students are currently training in the program and conducting research into crops specific to Africa. The graduates have released over 160 improved varieties of staple crops in six countries, published over 200 articles in high impact journals and attracted over $35 million in funding to their research institutions since graduation.