The GRENEWECA network was established in 1998. It is therefore in very preliminary stages of project implementation. A number of activities have however been undertaken, some of which are already showing positive outcomes. Following are some of the key achievements:

National programme development

The Network has supported national workshops in plant genetic resources in The Gambia, Chad and Mauritania in February, March and September 2000. IPGRI and GRENEWECA have contributed to these workshops by providing the organisers with documentation on minimum elements for a functional national programme and information on issues related to the implementation of the Global Plan of Action on genetic resources for food and agriculture.

- National Committee meetings were held in Benin, Senegal and Togo. Activities carried out by various partners were presented and discussed, and strategies for coordination in activities developed.

- To strengthen the germplasm conservation capacities and communication facilities, the national PGR programmes of Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Togo were provided with conservation facilities and/or computers with accessories.

- To strengthen national scientists' skills in PGR documentation and data analysis, IPGRI Regional Group for Sub Saharan Africa in collaboration with IPGRI in the Americas and GRENEWECA is organising a training course on PcGRIN and GIS. The course will be held in July, 2001.

- In country training courses have been organized to help national Scientists to train more people in their countries. Such courses took place in Benin and Togo in 1999, and in Nigeria in 2000. Various aspects of genetic diversity, genetic enhancement, plant breeding and genetic resources conservation, characterisation/evaluation and utilisation were presented and discussed.

Regional in vitro conservation training course at the University of Ghana, Accra

Twelve scientists from 5 African countries (Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo) were trained for three weeks at the University of Ghana in Accra on in vitro conservation of plant genetic resources. GRENEWECA has sponsored the participation to this course of a trainer on documentation and information.

GRENEWECA has facilitated the development of an MSc course in plant genetic resources at the University of Cocody. Cote D’Ivoire. IPGRI-SSA assisted in the development of curriculum for the course, and also provided training guides and literature.

IPGRI has awarded scholarships to four national scientists (Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo and Guinea), to prepare MSc degree in genetic resources management, at the University of Cocody. All four students will conclude their degree programmes this year

Regional and international collaboration

GRENEWECA has contributed to the preparation and implementation of a workshop "Towards sustainable national plant genetic resources programmes- policy. Planning and coordination issues”, jointly organized by DSE and IPGRI in Zschortau, Germany, 10-18 May, 2000. Leaders in national PGR programmes from 15 countries in the region, and officials of CORAF, participated in the workshop. Participating countries were: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Niger, and Togo. The proceedings are being published.

Collection and Conservation of neglected crops

- The germplasm of Egusi (Cucumeropsis spp, Lagenaria sciceraria, Citrullus spp., Telfairia occidentalis) collected in 1998-1999 was evaluated at Sekou (Benin) in 2000.

- A survey of collecting and documenting of indigenous knowledge on conservation of fonio (Digitaria exilis) conducted in 1999-2000 in Benin has indicated the crop as first commodity in 3 out of 7 Districts surveyed and as staple food in the whole region. It is also used to cure diseases. For some ethnic groups it is a delicacy and given to the family in law during wedding ceremonies.

- A survey of six states for ginger and five states for cocoyam was carried out in Nigeria. A total of 18 accessions of two species of cocoyam and 3 accessions of 2 species of ginger were collected from the southeastern region. Seven accessions of cocoyam (Colocasia esculentum and Xanthosoma sagitifolium) germplasm were proportionally shared between NACGRAB and NRCRI for field conservation and assessment/evaluation.

- Evaluation of frafra potato collection. The germplasm of frafra Hausa potato (Solenostemon rotundifolius) collected in Ghana in 1998 was evaluated in Bunso in 2000.