Kunskapsuppbyggnad beträffande finger millet, en närigsrik stråsädesgröda i Östra Afrika Harnessing finger millet as a bio-resource crop: developing an East African knowledge base Finger millet, a cereal crop, is the most important small millet species grown in eastern and southern Africa, and it serves as a subsistence and food security crop that is especially important for its nutritive and cultural values. As such, it is an important food crop in traditional low input cereal-based farming systems in Africa. Finger millet is thought to be African native probably originated in the highlands of Uganda and Ethiopia, where farmers have been growing it for thousands of years. The genetic knowledge and research is limited on finger millet, and the bulk of the gene pool, located in East Africa, remains largely uncharacterized. Finger millet is suitable as a subsistence food crop because it can store safely for many years without insect damage due to its small seeds, hence fitting well in farmers risk avoidance strategies in drought-prone regions. The yields of finger millet on farmers fields are generally low, just about 10-15 % of its theoretical maximum. Beside low research and developmental inputs, blast caused by the fungus Pyricularia oryzae is the most serious disease of finger millet, decreasing yields even further. Finger millet is of special benefit, notably for those who depend on plant foods for their protein. It is higher in protein, fat and minerals than rice, corn, or sorghum. For this reason, finger millet is an important preventative against malnutrition. By virtue of its high nutritive value, finger millet has huge industrial potential so far not exploited. Finger millet is grossly neglected both scientifically and internationally in terms of research, compared to the research lavished on wheat, rice, and maize. With this as a background, the overall aim of this project is, via networking and selected inputs, to build a knowledge bas on finger millet in East Africa. We plan following work, to: 1. Join meetings/workshops with regional programmes to optimise outputs of R&D in the region, and thereby establish a strong network including private partnerships. 2. Invite international experts to boost knowledge where gaps have been identified and direct various inputs including capacity building. 3. Collect P. oryzae isolates from various grass hosts & use M. grisea genome information for further characterisation. 4. Use public available grass genomic sequences to test their informative value on finger millet. We expect to find new novel materials since the gene pool of finger millet has its centre in East Africa. Any new materials have great potentials to generate new genetic knowledge and a broad variety of improvements. Knowledge on adaption of the P. grisea fungal pathogen to different grass hosts and or new races is crucial information and could be important for other regions than East Africa. Knowledge and materials generated will in a long-term perspective be open for new projects to build on. We anticipate for example to identify novel plant and fungal genotypes worthwhile to employ to next-generation sequencing to shed light on natural variation and evolutionary aspects. One important goal is to compile and publish our data to the international scientific community. Similarly, reaching farmers and extension service groups at the Makerere University Farm is another important task where information channels need to be established. Finger millet is a cereal crop that is higher in protein, fat and minerals than rice, corn, or sorghum. For this reason, it is an important preventative against malnutrition and due to long-time storage capability of the seeds, an important food security component. Finger millet is grossly neglected on R&D, compared to the research lavished on wheat, rice, and maize. The overall purpose of this project is, via networking and selected inputs, to build a knowledge base on finger millet in East Africa, where also the bulk of the gene pool is located. Our aim will be accomplished by: 1. Joining meetings/workshops with new regional programmes to optimise outputs of R&D and thereby establish a strong network including private partnerships. 2. Inviting international experts to boost knowledge where gaps have been identified and direct various inputs including capacity building. 3. Collect P. oryzae isolates from various grass hosts & use M. grisea genome information for further characterisation. 4. Use public available grass genome sequences to test their informative value on finger millet genotypes collected. Dissemination of our results to small farmers and the international scientific community are obvious parts of the work. Overall, clarifying breeding strategies, foresee obstacles and suitable materials is the primary goal in food security and innovation perspectives. Creating a platform on which capacity can be built on is a long-term investment including new projects.