Dr Ebenezer Obeng-Bio
Qualification: PhD (Plant Breeding)
Email: obengbio2000@gmail.com
Areas of Specialization: Yam, Sweetpotato and Maize Breeding
Major research, education and development interests:
(i) crop breeding and genetics with emphasis on population improvement for quality attributes, environmental adaptation, cultivar development and dissemination through sustainable seed systems,
(ii) applied and adaptive crop production research, and extension to increase the efficiency, profitability and sustainability of food and farming systems,
(iii) participatory methods to ensure relevance of research results.
Tel: +233 244 109 533/ 546 336 806
Nationality: Ghanaian
Station: Fumesua, Kumasi- Ghana
Dr Ebenezer Obeng-Bio is a Plant Breeder with special interest in the improvement of yam, sweetpotato and maize. Ebenezer has a PhD in Plant Breeding from the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Ghana. He also studied at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi where he obtained his BSc. degree in Agronomy (First Class Honours), served as a Teaching and Research Assistant at the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, and proceeded to obtain his MSc. degree in Plant Breeding from the same Department, KNUST.
Before joining the yam improvement programme at CSIR- Crops Research Institute (CSIR-CRI) Kumasi, Dr Obeng-Bio was an assistant Breeder on the Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health for Africa (SASHA), and the Sweetpotato Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI) projects for the International Potato Centre (CIP) based in CSIR- CRI from 2010 to 2014. Under his leadership at CIP, a strong collaboration was established with the national sweetpotato improvement programme at CSIR-CRI and this led to the release and commercialization of four improved varieties, CRI- Bohye, CRI- Ligri, CRI-Patron and CRI-Dadanyuie in 2012. The CIP projects also intensified promotion of the orange fleshed sweetpotato variety, Apomuden in northern Ghana to combat hidden hunger resulting from vitamin A deficiency especially among children under five years.
From 2016 to 2018, Ebenezer developed a set of early maturing provitamin A – quality protein maize (PVA-QPM) single cross hybrids with combined tolerance to drought and low soil nitrogen stresses in the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) maize improvement programme. The outstanding hybrids have been promoted into the regional varietal trials from which the most superior hybrids would be distributed to the national maize improvement programmes in West and Central Africa including Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Cameroon for further testing for release and commercialization.
Dr Obeng-Bio is a key team member of the yam improvement programme at CSIR-CRI which works in close collaboration with stakeholders including other researchers, national programme partners, technicians, students and producers in support of the overall programme’s objectives of the development, release and commercialization of high yielding, climate resilient and disease-free yam varieties with good culinary attributes.
He has a number of publications to his credit in reputable journals including Crop Science, Plant Breeding, Journal of Agricultural Science (Cambridge press), BMC Genetics and among others
