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25 August 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Pixabay
Research-industry linkages for the promotion of biofortified maize and wheat, highlighted the link between research and industry.

Prof Maryke Labuschagne believes that research through collaboration can be to the benefit of the whole food chain, literally from laboratory to farm to fork. 

She is professor of Plant Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) and heads the SARChI Chair: Disease Resistance and Quality in Field Crops.

Prof Labuschagne recently delivered a presentation at a webinar organised by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The focus was on Maize: Technologies, Development and Availability in South Asia. 

Her presentation: Research-industry linkages for the promotion of biofortified maize and wheat, highlighted the link between research and industry, stating that research outcomes should improve the livelihoods and health of people who grow and consume the food. 

Prof Labuschagne believes research by universities and research organisations can be linked to industry, with special reference to the development of biofortified crops. “Biofortification is the process where crop nutritional value is improved through genetic intervention,” she explains.

She states that the same technologies for crop biofortification can be applied throughout the world. 

In her presentation, Prof Labuschagne also reviewed the current technologies used, which include conventional genetic improvement and genetic engineering. Recently, the latter has been increasingly used for crop biofortification.

Enhancing nutritional value of crops

According to Prof Labuschagne, crop biofortification has developed exponentially in the last decade. Crop biofortification has been very successful in terms of improving the iron and zinc content, the provitamin A content, and the amounts of essential amino acids (lysine and tryptophan) in various staple foods.

“What we have learned is that genetic intervention in crop nutritional value is the best long-term solution to sustainably address vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies, especially in poor communities. It is a sustainable, and relatively cheap way to address mineral and vitamin deficiencies in the diets of people,” she says.

UFS research on biofortification

For a number of years now, a team of UFS scientists in the Division of Plant Breeding has been doing research on the biofortification of maize, sweet potatoes, bananas, and cassava. “The research took place in collaboration with a number of partners in Africa, and with funding from organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”

“This research has resulted in tangible outcomes, including the availability of seed and planting material of biofortified crops for farmers, who in turn make these crops available to consumers,” says Prof Labuschagne.

The crops not only add to the well-being of consumers, especially children and women, but also contribute to food security. 

News Archive

Postgraduate School opens at UFS
2011-05-19

 
Prof. Maresi Nerad, from Washington university in Seattle, USA
Photo: Stephen Collett

We are celebrating the launch of our new Postgraduate School (PGS) on our Main Campus in Bloemfontein from 16 - 20 May 2011.

In line with national priorities for research-based postgraduate education and the focus of the UFS Academic Turnaround Strategy, the aims of the Postgraduate School are to:

  • improve the quality of postgraduate student research;
  • produce graduates who are global citizens, research literate and able to reflect ethically on the purpose, process and product of research;
  • improve throughput rates of postgraduate students; and
  • make the experience of being a postgraduate at the UFS one which is stimulating, enjoyable and which contributes to the development of the person beyond the limits of her or his discipline(s).

“We hope that the school will be a pleasant place to pursue research scholarship, discuss ideas and relax, and we look forward to welcoming postgraduates and other scholars to the school,” Prof. Neil Roos, Director of the UFS Postgraduate School said.

This significant event in the academic transformation of the university goes hand in hand with the inaugural lecture of Prof. Maresi Nerad. Prof. Nerad’s impressive CV reads amongst others that she has a M.A. (Political Science) at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany and a Ph.D. (Higher Education) at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also the founding director of the national Center for Innovation and Research Graduate Education (CIRGE).

As Professor Extraordinary in the UFS’s Postgraduate School, she is bringing more to the table than a world of wisdom and her passion for the postgraduate education. “I can contribute lessons learned from four distinct professional experiences, including 17 years of administrative and scholarly leadership in undertaking the conceptual and practical transformational work of organisational change at two US postgraduate schools, where I worked amongst others to improve the quality of mentoring, shorten the time to doctoral degree, and improve doctoral completion rates.”

She also brings to the UFS her experience as founding and current director of the first research center for studies on graduate education in the world. “It is our mission to discover how best to prepare Ph.D. students to be effective leaders in research and society,” she said.

Prof. Nerad says that she is committed to support and consult with the UFS Postgraduate School. She would particularly encourage the use of research to understand postgraduate education in all its dimensions at the UFS better and to use the evidence-based findings as a base for policy-making and resource allocation.

In reflecting on her vision for the UFS Postgraduate School, Prof. Nerad says that five years from now she hopes to see the UFS having strengthened its position as a major driving force in the national South African postgraduate-education community for internationalising postgraduate education. She is also confident that the UFS will supply increased numbers of skilled postgraduates who are “intellectual entrepreneurs and risk takers with a social consciousness, who have sustainability of the systems of the planet as a core value”.

“Five years from now the PSG will have taken the lead in preparing graduate students who are world citizens,” Prof. Nerad concluded.

 

Presentation on PhD students reveals more than meets the eye

British professor presents a discussion at UFS

Journey from student to scholar

Society will take care of interests

Female academics talk about joys and lessons

Research plus the internet equals the cyber scholar
 


 

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