USAID Soybean Innovation Lab: Enhancing Sub-Saharan African Breeding Programs.

Increases in protein production are needed in countries in Africa to improve human nutrition and to supply a growing poultry industry. Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] production could help fill this protein gap because it has the potential to produce more protein per unit area than any other field crop. In addition, soybean has the capacity to fix nitrogen even with native Bradyrhizobium strains and it fits well into current crop rotations. However, for the soybean crop to prosper in Africa, higher yielding cultivars and improved agronomic practices are needed. Through the USAID funded Soybean Innovation Lab, soybean breeders in the USA and Africa are working together to enhance breeding programs in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, and Zambia. Through this cooperation, breeders in Africa are receiving germplasm, training, funding, and equipment to help them expand their programs and increase their effectiveness in developing improved soybean cultivars. The goal is to accelerate the breeding process to deliver higher yielding cultivars better adapted to local environments in less time, thereby improving farmers’ productivity and profitability. Preliminary tests under favorable management conditions of cultivars developed in Africa, or imported from the western hemisphere, demonstrate that yields greater than 4000 kg/ha are possible with cultivars from both regions. The introgression of new genetic diversity for seed yield into robust breeding programs and the improvement of production practices has the potential to greatly improve yields above the current average of approximately 1000 kg/ha across Africa.