Interview with Dr Issoufu KAPRAN

Dr. KAPRAN witnesses about the outcome of the first field trip of the AGRA-Ghana based team to Kumasi begin of October.

Profile of Dr Issoufu KAPRAN
Dr Issoufou Kapran originates from Niger. He is married and the father of 5 daughters. He attended the university Abdou Moumouni of Niamey in Niger and completed his studies at the Purdue University in the USA where he did all his graduate training. His B.S is in general agronomy, his M.S. and Ph.D in plant genetics and breeding.

His professional career was in the national research system of Niger (INRAN), where he was in charge of the sorghum breeding program for 18 years and of the foundation seed unit for 8 years. As team leader he oversaw the release of improved sorghum cultivars including open pollinated varieties 90SN7, SEPON82, SSD35, and NAD-1, the first sorghum hybrid released by a West African NARS.

Over the years he was respectively in charge of the INTSORMIL West Africa program on sorghum and millet, the McKnight foundation project on sorghum adaptation to poor soils, the INTSORMIL and Rockefeller/ONFARM projects on sorghum hybrid seed production at the farmer level, the ICRISAT/CFC project on groundnut seeds, the USAID/USDA gene flow project in sorghum, the IRD/IFB project on characterization of sorghum diversity in Niger.
Issoufou Kapran joined the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in august 2007, as program officer for seed production and dissemination in the Program for Africa’s Seed Systems (PASS). As of September 2007 he moved to Accra where the PASS West Africa team is located.