Page 19 - Landscape SA Issue 107

FEATURE

He has lectured MSc plant breeding students on methods and from Malawi as part of the GTZ project from Germany, and for this
principles of plant breeding at the University of Zimbabwe’s crop assignment he received the Infruitec-Nietvoorbij Directors Award in
science department. In 2019 he became the senior group research 2001.
consultant at the Seed Co. Group. He is currently a member of the
Wheat Steering Committee for CGIAR CIMMyT, representing sub- Dr Francois Koekemoer completed his BSc
Saharan Africa. Agric degree, majoring in agronomy and
genetics. He did his PhD degree in 2003 with the
Richard Lubbe completed his MSc at the title “Genetic Variability of South African Spring
University of Pretoria on the vegetation and Wheats for Milling and Breadmaking Quality.”
flora of the Kosi Bay Coastal Forest Reserve. He He joined the ARC as an irrigation wheat
has worked for the Department of Agriculture as breeder, and later worked for Monsanto in
a senior agricultural product technician, where the same capacity, where he also acted as the
he planted and evaluated trials for registration director of research and development. A total
and variety listing. of 21 irrigation wheat cultivars have been directly released by him.
For the past 17 years he has headed up He was elected president of the SAPbA in 2004. In addition, he
the pumpkin breeding programme at Starke has acted as referee for various MSc and PhD theses, as well as for
Ayres, during which time he has released six cultivars. His varieties scientific journals. His achievements have been recognised by multi-
are currently planted worldwide and dominate the South African national companies such as Monsanto and Syngenta, and he is
market. He believes that being in the field monitoring the plants is widely acknowledged as an expert in his field due to his experience
crucial to the success of any breeding programme. in hybrid wheat breeding.
He is presently a breeding programme manager for Starke Ayres’
research department. Dr Yoseph Beyene holds a PhD in plant genetics
and breeding from the University of Pretoria.
Dr Geoffrey Hildebrand obtained his D.Phil Currently he is a principal scientist and regional
Agriculture from the University of Zimbabwe. maize breeding coordinator for Africa at the
He started his career in 1968 as a research officer International Maize and Wheat Improvement
(groundnut breeder) with the Crop breeding Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.
Institute at the Ministry of Agriculture. He was His research interest is developing high-
principal scientist (breeding) at the SADC/ yielding and climate-resilient maize inbred
ICRISAT Groundnut Project in Malawi, and then lines and hybrids for sub-Saharan Africa using
returned to Zimbabwe to join Seed Co as a conventional and molecular breeding. He has been actively engaged
groundnut breeder. He currently works for Klein in developing maize hybrids that are resistant to MLN disease, an
Karoo Seed Marketing Zimbabwe as a small grains breeder and over emerging threat for maize production in sub-Saharan Africa. He is
time, has released 28 cultivars across crops such as groundnuts, also involved in the capacity building of public/private breeding
sugar beans, sorghum and soya beans. He has contributed to the programmes and supervising PhD and MSc students from various
development of more than 13 cultivars released in the SADC region. countries. He has published more than 50 articles in refereed journals
He has lectured on groundnut production, advised post-graduate and has presented at international conferences.
students on research projects and provided support to research
scientists. He is a founder member of the Crop Science Society of Phyllis Burger is a grape breeder at ARC
Zimbabwe and is also a member of the SAPbA. Infruitec-Nietvoorbij, Stellenbosch. In
recognition of her contribution to this
Abebe Menkir has an MSc in plant breeding industry, she received the award for Top
from the University of Manitoba, Canada, and Intellectual Property Creator for the ARC, April
a PhD in plant breeding from kansas State 2011 to March 2018.
University, USA.
Amongst many research achievements, he
has developed and released many stress resilient Prof. John Derera is the head of breeding at the
maize varieties and hybrids in collaboration International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and
with national research partners and private seed former global head of research and development
companies in eight countries. at Seed Co Group. He has 24 years of industry and
He has supervised PhD and MSc students and delivered lectures academic experience and under his leadership,
on conventional breeding to African maize breeders. His professional Seed Co developed many new varieties of maize,
services include the reviewing of manuscripts for many journals and wheat and soybean. He holds an MPhil in plant
serving as an elected member of the research committee of a maize breeding and entomology from the University of
network in West and Central Africa. He is the recipient of several Zimbabwe. He has trained and mentored more
awards. than 70 breeders at PhD and MSc level and sits on numerous panels that
serve the interests of the plant breeding community in Africa. He has
Taaibos Human is a pear breeder at ARC published extensively in research journals.
Infruitec-Nietvoorbij and has made great
contributions to the deciduous fruit industry Dr Alfred Dixon is known as the father of
of the Western Cape through his innovative cassava breeding in Africa, having made huge
breeding efforts in developing new cultivars. contributions to this over many years. He has
He initiated a pear cross which led to the release supervised the research of 33 post graduate
of the new blushed cultivar, Cheeky®, and is students at levels of PhD, MPhil and MS. He has
currently creating various blushed miniature authored or co-authored over 350 scientific
pears; five of these are being submitted for Plant publications.
Breeders’ Rights applications.
In 2000, he tutored a nursery training project for delegates

Landscape SA • Issue 107 2021 17