PhD Plant Breeding PhD/DPhil

Development of crop cultivars in agricultural sector is rapidly changing with emerging use of both classical and molecular breeding technologies. This shift necessitates the transformation of education sector and development of breeders ready to transform breeding practices using new techniques that are more efficient and precise to provide quality cultivars for the growing population. The PhD training in Plant Breeding integrates applied genetics and molecular plant sciences. The course will play a key role in improving agricultural productivity and food security. The program emphasizes on scientific principles and techniques of crop improvement with aspects of agricultural biotechnology. The graduates will get the opportunity to broaden their scientific knowledge in crop improvement and will promote professional development of different crop cultivars by providing the student with well-founded knowledge and hands-on practical skills. The increasing demand for food requires that crop scientists keep pace with appropriate technological. It has been documented that plant breeding alone contributes to a very significant increase in crop production. However, this has not been attained in Kenya and other developing countries, because of a shortage of well trained plant breeders. The PhD curriculum in Plant Breeding has been designed to produce competent plant breeders with new technologies. The graduates will be well versed with research and emerging issues/technologies in crop improvement through plant breeding.