The BecA-ILRI hub under directorship of Dr. Apollinaire Djikeng saw the need to establish genotyping platform that local plant breeding programs in sub-Saharan Africa will use to accelerate the rate of development and release of new crop varieties and they drafted a proposal that was funded by Bill and Melinda Gates foundation (BMGF). A high-density, high-throughput Integrated Genotyping Service and Support (IGSS) was formed. An Agreement was entered to operate IGSS between BecA ILRI Hub and Diversity Arrays Technology Pty ArT, a private company located at University of Canberra, Australia. DArT main role was to provide the technology and to train key lead personnel from the BecA-ILRI Hub on DArT technologies and methods of operation.

Recruitment of graduate trainees at ILRI was done. The first batch of five trainees arrived in DArT, Canberra, Australia for a specialized skilled based training.

The second batch of two, later another two and last one arrived in DArT for training.
First batch of trainees returned to Nairobi, and they were all employed by ILRI under BecA-ILRI Hub to run and operate the platform where they started setting up IGSS.
In November, the Director of BecA-ILRI Hub Dr. Appolinaire Djikeng led the launch of IGSS and operations soon started.

The second batch of trainees returned to Nairobi. Three were employed and they joined the first IGSS team of five.

A lot of Workshop/Outreach activities were conducted. Several African breeders were able to benefit from support that the team offered during the period. Please refer to the Trainings Tab on our Website for more information.

Our operation was climaxed. We had so many workshops and trainings- check Trainings Tab. There was a re-training for all IGSS staff conducted at DArT Canberra, Australia to equip them on new technologies that IGSS plan to offer as they transition to a new entity. The entity will adopt all the relevant SOP and administrative procedures/software solutions to facilitate effective operations.
IGSS grant came to an end in December 2019 and IGSS partners started the discussion of independence to self-sustain its operation.

To ensure continuity and sustainability IGSS transitioned to an Independent non for-profit entity: SEQART AFRICA, a hosted organization at ILRI which has been operational since 1st August 2020. IGSS conducted a workshop termed “end of project workshop on IGSS APPLICATIONS OF GBS DATA IN BREEDING” in Nairobi from 28th – 30th January 2020. All participants and breeders present were notified of the need to establish an independent entity and progress of the same.