Welcome to the UC Davis Plant Breeding Academy

UC Davis African Plant Breeding Academy starts Class III
The UC Davis African Plant Breeding Academy started its third class of students with a session in Nairobi, Kenya, May 15-27, 2017. The program is organized in collaboration with The African Union New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency and the African Orphan Crops Consortium. The third class of the UC Davis African Plant Breeding Academy consists of 34 breeders, half of whom are women, representing 18 African nations. Over the next thirteen months, they will spend more than 300 hours in classes, workshops and the field, training to complete this premium professional certification program.

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ILLUMINA DONATES POWERFUL SEQUENCER TO AOCC
Illumina has generously donated one of its most powerful sequencers, the HiSeq 4000 Sequencing System, to enable the African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC) to complete its crop sequencing project. In addition to the 101 crop species being sequenced, the instrument, which is housed at the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) in Nairobi, will be used by our African Plant Breeding Academy instructors to train practicing African plant breeders on how to use genomics to increase nutrition and crop yields. 
View AOCC 2017 Progress Report
Read more and view VIDEO

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SBC Plant Breeding Academy congratulates Dr. David Stelly, a long term PBA lecturer and contributor, on the 2017 International Cotton Advisory Committee Researcher of the Year Award. Read more

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Published in CAST and co-authored by PBA Instructor Rita Mumm and UC Davis Professor and Plant Breeding Center Director Charlie Brummer (et al.), Plant Breeding and Genetics: A paper in the series on The Need for Agricultural Innovation to Sustainably Feed the World by 2050 offers good a summarization of plant breeding for the future. Read full article

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SBC partner the African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC)'s large-scale sequencing of African orphan crops is highlighted in genomics article "Sequencing all life captivates biologists", published in Science. See full article

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Dr. Robert Dirks, an outstanding scientist and plant breeder, has joined the team of the UC Davis PBA as an instructor with the upcoming EPBA Class V. He recently retired from his position of Research Manager with Rijk Zwaan and will focus on service to the plant breeding industry. European PBA applications are now being accepted. Read more

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The first public genome sequence for Coffea arabica, the species responsible for more than 70 percent of global coffee production, has been released by UC Davis researchers. The sequencing was conducted through a collaboration between SBC Director of Research Allen Van Deynze and UCD researchers Dario Cantu, Juan Medrano, and Amanda Hulse-Kemp. Read more

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