Scientists from the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), through a project 'Fighting Striga: Resistance genes deployed to boost sorghum productivity', have developed sorghum which is resistant to the Striga weed and can mature within two months.

The breakthrough was a result of research carried out to build upon an earlier project with the aim of utilising modern biotechnology tools to identify traits for Striga-resistant sorghum. Dr. Charles Mugoya, who heads ASARECA's Agro-Biodiversity and Biotechnology Programme (Agrobio), says they developed 50 sorghum lines capable of 3.6 tonnes grain yield per hectare. This was done together with partner institutions in Sudan, Kenya and Eritrea and the technical support of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat).

'There is a potential of raising sorghum production to 61.2 million tonnes on 17 million hectares of farmland that are threatened due to Striga infestation. The 300 million people in Africa who depend on sorghum will attain food security and lead better lives,' he said.

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