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The
Plant Science Programme
is one of ten research programmes funded by the Rural Livelihoods
Department of the UK's Department for International Development
(DFID) under the Rural
Natural Resources Research Strategy 1995-2006. PSP is
managed by Centre
for Arid Zone Studies at Bangor University. It funds, manages
and promotes research aimed at improving the livelihoods of
resource-poor farmers in developing countries through plant
sciences research
Over
its lifetime, the PSP has divided its funds between five research
themes or ouputs.
- Novel
methods of aiding conventional plant breeding to overcome
biotic or abiotic constraints developed and tested,
- Methods
to genetically modify crops to overcome biotic or abiotic
constraints developed and tested,
- Methods
to improve soil fertility and crop nutrition by biological
means developed and tested,
- Methods
to optimise cropping systems by agronomic means developed
and tested,
- Participatory
methods for varietal selection and breeding developed and
tested.
PSP's
broad spectrum of research encompasses the latest biotechnology
techniques for screening and breeding for drought/disease
tolerance through to the development of key technologies -
simple, low-cost interventions, the impacts of which are large
enough to induce farmers to make other, perhaps more risky
or more costly, changes in agronomic practices in order to
make yet further gains.
Projects
are funded that are demand-led and particular attention is
paid to the poverty focus of research. Care is taken to maximise
impact of the outputs of research by clear identification
of uptake pathways before the project begins.
The
PSP promotes uptake through workshops, publications, training,
conferences, reviews and networking. |
