About the Regional Center for Crop Improvement (MaRCCI)
MaRCCI is an African Regional Centre of Excellence for Crop Improvement supported by a grant from World Bank (2017-2022). MaRCCI builds upon Makerere University’s highly respected PhD and MSc training in plant breeding that was initiated as a regional programme by the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) in 2008.
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has provided the primary support for the MSc programme. MaRCCI is a unit under the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) housed at the Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo (MUARIK).
MaRCCI offers a PhD programme in Plant Breeding and Biotechnology as well as an MSc in Plant Breeding and Seed Systems in cooperation with the Department of Agricultural Production, CAES. The programmes require full-time involvement and consists of rigorous coursework and research. The Centre's research programme is designed to support the training programme and to cooperate with national and regional breeding efforts. It currently supports two crops, cowpea and sorghum as model crops to demonstrate best-breeding practices to both students in the PhD and MSc training programmes of MaRCCI as well as scientists in the region.
MaRCCI's short courses include: Breeding Strategies, Data Quality Improvement, Statistical Analysis of Varietal Comparison Experiments, Tree improvement techniques, Seed quality assessment and preservation, Writing policy briefs, Personal mastery & soft skills, Research design & instrumentation, Plant disease diagnostics, control & management, Breeding program management, Scientific writing & publishing, E-data acquisition and handling, The Centre also offers state-of-the-art services under its Biotechnology, Bio-Informatics and Micro-Biology Laboratory facilities as well as Web-Based Learning.
For more about MaRCCI, visit the Centre's Website - https://rcci.mak.ac.ug