3rd Africa Rice Congress Theme 1: climate resilient rice Mini symposium: Enhancing rice yield potential Author: Addae, et al.

1. Product Development of Genetically Modified NERICA- 4 with
Nitrogen-use Efficiency, Water-use Efficiency and Salttolerance traits for Deployment to Farmers in Sub-Saharan
Africa
P. Addae, J. Mignouna, J.van Boxtel, K. Dartey, J. Lamo, M. Obokoh, M.
Tswako
Third Africa Rice Congress, Yaoundé, Cameroun
21-25 October, 2013

2. Constraint to Rice farming: Nitrogen
deficiency

3. Constraint to rice farming: Drought

4. Constraint to rice farming: Salinity

5. Mitigations to these constraints
• Conventional Breeding
- Developing tolerant varieties
• Plant Biotechnology
- Introducing novel genes into plants to develop
tolerant varieties
• Role of African Agricultural Technology
Foundation (AATF)

6. Role of AATF
• Not for profit organization based in Kenya
- Accesses proprietary and non-proprietary
agricultural technologies on royalty- free basis
- Forms partnerships with public & private
institutions globally to develop the technology
- Develop the technology with partners
- Deploy the technology to small-holder farmers in
Sub –Saharan Africa (SSA)

7. NEWEST RICE PROJECT
• Technology Provider: Arcadia Biosciences, USA
• Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE)
- source: Barley
• Water-use Efficiency (WUE)
- source: Bacteria protein
• Salt –tolerance (ST)
- source: Rice
• Transformation variety: NERICA-4

8. NEWEST RICE PROJECT
Product Development
- Efficacy testing of transgenic lines in confined field
trials (CFT)
- Locations (2): Ghana & Uganda
- 8 NUE lines, 8 Isogenic lines and NERICA-4 (control)
- Fertilizer rates: 30, 60, 90 Kg N/ha
- Two plantings to be done in 2013
- Data collection in progress
- NEWEST lines to be planted in 2014

9. NEWEST RICE PROJECT
NUE lines planted with 3 different fertilizer rates of
30, 60 & 90 kg N/ha in Ghana

10. Acknowledgements
• USAID –funding
• Arcadia Biosciences – Technology provider
• National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS)
- conduct CFTs
- Crop Research Institute, Ghana
- National Agricultural Research Institute, Uganda
- National Cereals Research Institute, Nigeria
• CIAT - produces transgenic seed for testing

11. P. Addae - Africa Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), Kenya
J. Mignouna - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (formerly with AATF) USA
J.van Boxtel- Arcadia Biosciences, USA
K. Dartey - CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Ghana
J. Lamo - National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), Uganda
A. Maji - National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), Nigeria,
M. Obokoh - AfricaBio

12. Constraints on Rice farming
• Nitrogen deficiency
- Prohibitive fertilizer costs
- Unavailable
- Losses from the soil
• Drought
- Climate change
- Unpredictable weather patterns
- Recurrent
• Salinity occurs in coastal & irrigated soils