The African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI) was started in 2002 with the ambitious goal of becoming a world-class training centre for African plant breeders.
Based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, its PhD graduates are part of a new generation of African scientists who are highly trained global experts on the continent’s food security crops.
Latest News
UKZN Ranks Top 10 in African Plant Breeding Research
ACCI hosts sorghum field day
The Business of Plant Breeding in Africa
The ACCI participated in the Tropical Agriculture/TropAg 2025 Conference in Brisbane, Australia. It was an enlightening event with valuable insights, new collaborations and opportunities with the agriculture community from across the globe.
After the TropAg 2025 Conference, the ACCI and partners presented an invited seminar organised by the Crawford Fund for Food Security and Fenner School of Environment and Society of the Australian National University in Canberra. The seminar shared an in-depth insight into the business of plant breeding in Africa, highlighting the long-term commitment of agricultural research for development and human capacity development efforts in Africa, which have yielded significant and multiple impacts.
A new opportunity is being explored on a Pan Africa Sorghum Alliance (PASA) with Australia and partners from several countries in Africa, where sorghum is a widely grown and increasingly important crop, due to its climate resilience and nutritional value.