ISRFG opening ceremony speech by Jean-Marc Châtaigner

AfricaRice @ ISRFG2016 hosted by French research organizations, Montpellier

AfricaRice scientists are taking an active role in the 14th International Symposium on Rice Functional Genomics (ISRFG 2016) in Montpellier, France, 26-29 Sep 2016. The 2016 symposium, is covering exciting breakthroughs in structural, functional and evolutionary rice genome biology, pushing current scientific knowledge to address the need of sustainably increasing crop yields and global food security. It is being hosted by French research organizations in Montpellier. The CGIAR Research Program on Rice, known as the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) is one of the key partners of ISRFG 2016.

The opening lecture of this symposium was delivered by AfricaRice Molecular Biologist Khady Nani Dramé, on "Molecular breeding to boost rice production in Africa". 

Baboucarr Manneh, AfricaRice Irrigated Rice Breeder and coordinator for the African component of the Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA) and the Green Super Rice (GSR) projects, made a presentation on "Genome-wide association studies to identify QTLs for yield and yield-related traits of rice in the Sahel zone of Africa" under the theme “Rice diversity harnessing for gene discovery and precision breeding”. 

The opening ceremony included speeches from dignitaries representing the symposium hosts:

• Jean-François Audrin, Mayor of Saint-Georges-d'Orques and vice president of Montpellier Agglomération

• Michel Eddi, President Managing Director, CIRAD (French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development), Montpellier

• Jean-Marc Châtaigner,  Deputy Executive Director, French Research Institute for Development (IRD)

• Pascal Kosuth, Director of Agropolis Fondation, Montpellier

Scenes from the 14th International Symposium on Rice Functional Genomics (ISRFG), Montpellier, France, 26 Sep 2016.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/africarice/

For more information, visit http://isrfg2016.cirad.fr/