www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=21676  

University of Namibia  scientists who are working on a groundbreaking European Union-funded project to domesticate a highly nutritious wild bean plant did their university proud when their exhibition was judged the best among dozens of others at an international scientific conference in South Africa, recently. The scientists - Dr Percy Chimwamurombe, Mr. Emmanuel Nepolo, Ms Mutsa Takundwa, and Mr. Damascene Uzakiriho - are trying to domesticate the Marama wild bean to save it from extinction, improve the nutrition of people and reduce poverty.

Their initiative has generated international interest among top plant scientists and donors that include the United Kingdom-based Kirkhouse Trust and the MacGregor Foundation of the United States of America. The project is particularly important for Namibia, a semi-arid country with limited commercial crop production options. The UNAM scientists, who are now affectionately known as ‘The Marama Team’, were recently among approximately 100 other scientists who attended the Conference on Tropical Crops Biotechnology in Mpumalanga, Hazyview in South Africa.

Participants to the workshop were mostly scientists working on tropical crops agriculture improvement through biotechnology. They included MSc students, post-doctoral fellows, Professors, university lecturers, and research directors of big biotechnology companies like Monstanto of the USA, Sygenta also of the USA, and the John Innes Research Institute of the United Kingdom. Chimwamurombe, who is the principal investigator in the Marama project, said the aim of the conference was to showcase different research in tropical agriculture (sugar cane, pearl millet, bananas, sweet potatoes and plantation forests) aimed at maximizing output in keeping with growing population demands, dwindling land for agriculture and changing environmental conditions.

During the conference, Chimwamurombe presented a paper entitled Marama bean domestication in Southern Africa: Climate change triggering the need for crop diversification. His students presented posters related to the project and were judged the best of more than 25 groups in that category from all over the world. The second best group was from the Marx Plank Institute from Germany for their work on regulation of starch genes. Stellenbosch University of South Africa, which hosted the conference, was rated the third for work on sucrose biosynthetic pathways in sugarcane.

Chimwamurombe described his team’s performance at the high-level conference as “both humbling and motivating”. “This is a humbling recognition of the hard work and good research that students are committing into their MSc studies. It is also good for our institution as it shows the fruits of institutional support which produced research that can be showcased at international for a without shame.

This was an opportunity for networking and forging new collaborative research links. We are now pursuing such collaborations with Wageningen University of Research in the Netherlands, Stellenbosch University’s Plant Biotechnology Institute and the Zurich Institute of Technology in Switzerland,” Chimwamurombe said, adding that several Professors from all over the world had been so impressed with the marama project that they had offered technical assistance and opportunities for joint grant proposal writing to solicit further financial support for the maraca project.

It has been whispered that the G8 group of countries has set aside billions of euro to support research in African agriculture. The Dutch Government has also set aside one billion euro for the same purpose. Calls for proposals are expected soon. Experts say domestication refers to the process of making a population of plants or animals used to human provision and control. Human beings have since time out of mind domesticated plants and animals for a variety of reasons, which include producing food and providing companionship, as in the case of wheat, maize and cassava, and dogs and cattle.

Marama is a Setswana word for Tylosema esculentum, a wild, pod-bearing perennial plant that for many centuries has been eaten by some people and animals in sub-Saharan Africa but is now threatened by over-exploitation and urbanisation. The Marama can still be seen in some parts of Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. In Namibia it is distributed in Omaheke, Otjizondjupa (Otjiwarogo and surrounding areas), Groofontein and Khomas Region. In South Africa it occurs in northern Gauteng but is in grave danger of extinction because of massive construction of roads, shopping malls, houses and other buildings (anthropogenic practices). The Ova Herero of Namibia call Marama beans Ombanui and call the plant that bears the beans Otjipia.
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