Interview with Biswanath Das (CGIAR ABI-Transform) by Stefan Möhl (CIP)
I meet with Biswanath Das at the sidelines of the East African Potato Breeding Network (EAPBN) gathering at the Dusit Princess Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. Das is the breeding partnerships lead for the CGIAR Accelerated Breeding Initiative. The EAPBN is part of the RTB Breeding initiative and coordinates potato breeding in the region. Currently, breeding is scattered across many different national programs. EAPBN connects the individual programs to share expertise and pool resources to create resilient and preferred potato varieties.
It is May in Nairobi, and the rain clouds are still hanging thick on the horizon. Inside the hotel are muffled sounds from a range of workshops going on simultaneously. Entering the room where the network gathers, I overhear excited conversation about drop irrigation and Crispr. Then there is Biswanath Das. Checkered shirt and a warm smile: “Hi I’m Bish, good to meet you!” We have 20min. So, I rush Bish into a side room and start right away.
CIP: Bish I’d say let’s jump right into it, shall we?
Biswanath Das: yeah, go for it.
CIP: With the East African Potato Breeding Network, you are gathering potato breeders from seven different African countries. I’ve overheard that people here refer to it as a movement. Can you explain this to me?
Biswanath Das: A movement? Well to me it insinuates that there’s some momentum developing. I mean CIP has been working on potatoes here for a very long time. But establishing a formal collaboration with national partners in Eastern and southern Africa is a new development. And I think what we’re witnessing this week in Nairobi is that there is lots of appetite for cross border collaboration, and to develop new varieties that are really suitable for the region. There’s lots of energy in the room and enthusiasm. So certainly, it feels like a movement.
CIP: Why is this relevant right now?
Biswanath Das: Well, potato cultivation and demand for potatoes in Africa is increasing strongly. Therefore, it’s now paramount that that we establish some kind of collaboration in the region. As an international center, CIP has a mandate to coordinate this across borders.
CIP is also very strong in what we call the upstream areas of research. It has the personnel, the facilities and the know-how. It has access to a gene bank with the largest collection of roots and tuber crops. But to see our varieties growing in the fields, it’s important to work with the right partners. And those partners are the national breeding programs. They understand what farmers and consumers require in each country. And of course, they have a presence on the ground and can multiply and distribute some of the new varieties. So really, there is no alternative. We must work together.
CIP: So, CIP develops the varieties, and the national partners simply distribute them? That sounds very much top-down.
Biswanath Das: No quite the opposite. Don’t get me wrong, we have always worked well together with universities, national organizations and the private sector. But what’s different now is that our partnerships need strengthening and I personally think they need to be more equal.
You see, if we want our technologies to make any difference, CGIAR constantly needs to evolve. Over the past three years we’ve had a range of multi-stakeholder discussions trying to understand how we can do this. The message that we’ve heard very strongly was that our partners want to be more proactive. They want to be actively engaged in the research, rather than just assessing and deploying technologies. They really need to be involved in the design, the co-creation and the development of these new technologies. And that’s at the heart of the new approach to partnerships. And that’s also what we are pursuing with the East African Potato Breeding Network.
CIP: The network was born in a time of great uncertainty, especially for Eastern Africa. In Sudan we have active fighting. Ethiopia still recovers from a horrible civil war. Just now Kenya was hit by massive floods. How would you describe the role of the network against this backdrop?
Biswanath Das: I think there are two ways of looking at it. Yes, we are in a very difficult situation. Not only in Eastern Africa but globally. With so much disruption and conflict I think it’s critical that we, as a network, keep the research work going on.
You know, climate change is not going to stop. We cannot afford a break in the research and breeding pipeline. Because how else are we to respond to the crises we’re facing? So even though some of our partners are facing tremendous difficulties and are unable to continue their work, it’s very important that as a network, we identify alternative hubs where we can keep these pipelines running and enable some of those countries to still access technologies.
CIP: And the second angle?
Biswanath Das: The second angle is that some of these conflicts are caused by the food crisis. We are entering now what’s called the third phase, the third food crisis that we’ve had in the last 15 years: increasing food prices and decreasing production. So, we really need new crop varieties to boost productivity and yields.
At the same time, we also don’t need to have a breeding operation in every individual country. As a collaborative network we divide the work and establish this in one or two countries to service the entire region. This is a much more sustainable and certainly cheaper way of making sure we are fit for the future.
CIP: Thanks for this interview Bish