Project 1: Developing technologies to ameliorate biotic and abiotic stresses in sorghum This project intends to increase the productivity of sorghum by developing methods that speed-up breeding for resistance to abiotic stresses (drought, Al toxicity and low phosphorus availability in the soil) and biotic stresses (anthracnose and Turcicum leaf blight) through the use of marker-assisted selection (MAS). A faster breeding process will guarantee a timely and robust response to threats of production process. The project was designed to develop biotechnologies to ameliorate biotic and abiotic stresses in sorghum, thereby strengthening of capacity for sorghum improvement among the partner institutions in the BIO-EARN countries. The project addresses the following stresses; Turcicum Leaf Blight (TLB) and Anthracnose diseases, drought stress, Aluminium toxicity and Phosphorus use efficiency and striga. The project aims at generating tools to hasten development of more resilient sorghum varieties, identify markers associated with various stresses and development of sorghum varieties with multiple stress tolerance and development of strategies for their dissemination. Implementing Institutions Department of Botany, Moi University Department of Crop, Makerere University Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute (MARI) Department of Biology,Faculty of Science,Addis Ababa University Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, Sweden Crop Science Department, University of Nairobi (UoN) Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Namulonge Agricultural and Animal Research Institute (NAARI) Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics,SLU, Uppsala, Sweden Implementation Status ulted in the strengthening of capacity for sorghum improvement among the partner institutions in the BIO-EARN countries. Reactions of diverse sorghum germplasm to Turcicum Leaf Blight (TLB) and Anthracnose diseases have been assessed, their agronomic potential determined and tools to hasten development of more resilient sorghum varieties identified and verified. Identification of markers associated with various stresses, development of sorghum varieties with multiple stress tolerance, has been partially achieved. However release of these elite materials identified and tools developed to any of the national breeding programmes awaits further validation of the information generated and development of strategies for their dissemination. This project involves 19 scientists from 11 institutions from 5 countries. The project is training 1 postdoctoral student, 5 PhDs and 12 MSC students. Read more Background information about sorghum Read More on Project 1 Research team ...