The objective of the project is to apply mutation breeding and soil management techniques to develop new mutant lines/varieties with high yielding and enhanced tolerance to drought conditions for improving crop resilience of drought affected farmers.  The collaboration was initiated between the Government of the Republic of Namibia through the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), with the support of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture in 2009.  Local varieties of cowpea, sorghum and millet seed were exposed to different gamma doses at FAO/IAEA Agriculture & Biotechnology Laboratories in Seibersdorf, Austria   and irradiated seed were planted and breeding process initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry experimental fields in Namibia. The research has been conducted at three (3) crop research stations viz.  Omahenene in the North West, Mannheim in the North Central and Bagani Research in the North East.

Since then, the breeding process has been conducted through handling mutated population with breeding and combined biotechnologies for identification, evaluation and selection of developed lines. Combined soil and water management practices such as conservation agriculture (linking land productivity with the environment) are being used to evaluate the interactive effects of crop rotations, soil organic matter additions, and nutrient and water use on the soil quality and productivity of the mutants in the selected environments. Mutation breeding has been successfully used and advanced mutant lines in cowpea (14), sorghum (11) and pearl millet (11) with better yield and drought tolerance have developed.  Advanced field experiments still continue in multi-locations trials for yield and abiotic/biotic stress evaluation.

Ms Fatma Sarsu, Technical Officer from Joint FAO/IAEA Division, Plant Breeding and Genetics Section, visited the research experiments as well as farmers’ fields cultivated with mutant lines under on farm conditions.

After the field visits Ms Sarsu and the local counterpart, Ms Lydia Ndinelao Horn, Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry visited the FAO Namibia office to explore, exchange experiences and organize possible synergic approaches to develop integrated genetic, soil, and water management approaches for enhanced productivity of the mutant lines in the different agro ecological regions.

His Excellency, Dr Ahmadu Babagana, the FAO  Country Representative, was pleased with the work done by Joint Division particularly mutation breeding combined with soil and water management practices to help optimize the productivity of the developed mutant lines in drought-prone environments in Namibia. He offered his support and collaboration to help to organize field day events related to the pre-released/released of mutant varieties with high productivity in drought prone areas in coming years.