UKZN Ranks Top 10 in African Plant Breeding Research

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The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is among the top 10 institutions contributing significantly to plant breeding research on the African continent, according to a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 23 years of progress, published in Springer’s Discover Plants journal.

According to the nine authors, who are affiliated with institutions including Nigeria’s UNESCO International Centre for Biotechnology, the Russian Federation’s Biological Institute at Tomsk University, the University of Greenwich’s Food and Markets Department at its Natural Resources Institute in the United Kingdom, and the Africa Institute for Postharvest Technology at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, research output from Africa has increased considerably since 2014. South African institutions are at the forefront of this growth and collaborate most frequently with experts in the United States of America.

The authors explain the discipline’s utilisation of “various techniques to develop superior crop varieties with desirable characteristics, including higher yield and improved quality, such as better taste, aroma, texture, and nutrient content, as well as resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.”

They highlight research focused on food security, utilising keywords such as ‘genetics’, ‘genotype’, and ‘CRISPR/Cas9’ to mitigate the stresses of disease, adverse climatic conditions, and pests on plants, and to combat the challenges of low productivity and lack of sustainability in Africa’s agricultural sector. Their assessment of trends and developments in the field also identifies key directions for future research. 

A notable recognition is that UKZN’s Professor Hussein Shimelis was named the most productive author, with the highest number of articles and citations over the 23 years analysed, highlighting the extent of his academic influence.

Shimelis is the South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI) Chair of Crop Science at UKZN, and Director of the African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI), founded in 2002 to train the next generation of African plant breeders. The ACCI has trained 165 plant breeders since its inception, many of whom have gone on to influential careers contributing to food and nutrition security. Its alumni constitute 40-50% of active plant breeders in African national agricultural research systems, with 100% retention on the continent. ACCI alumni have released more than 210 new crop varieties across 20 African countries, and the ACCI group has published 500 research articles. 

Shimelis’ expertise focuses on the genetic improvement of crops for yield gains and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. He has an extensive network of collaborators in plant breeding research across Africa and contributes to projects including the Sorghum Cluster Initiative.

In 2025, Shimelis was named a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and was a finalist for the National Science and Technology Forum-South32 Lifetime Award. He was recognised as one of Africa’s 20 most influential plant breeders in 2020 by the Southern Africa Plant Breeders’ Association.

A full professor of plant breeding with more than 30 years of experience in teaching and research across Africa, Shimelis joined UKZN after earning his PhD in 2003 from the University of the Free State. He completed his undergraduate degree at Haramaya University in Ethiopia, where he later served as a senior lecturer, and obtained his master’s from Wageningen University in The Netherlands.

Shimelis served as Deputy Director of the ACCI from 2014 to 2023. In July 2023, he was appointed Director, guiding the centre through changes to its funding model while continuing its mission. He is also a founding member and leader of the Pan-Africa Demand-led Breeding initiative, which promotes demand-driven breeding practices to increase adoption of improved crop varieties, including underutilised orphan crops, and enhance food and nutrition security.

Shimelis has consistently ranked among UKZN’s top 30 published researchers. He is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, and a National Research Foundation C-1 rated researcher. His citation metrics include a Google Scholar H-index of 62, a Scopus H-index of 40 and a Web of Science H-index of 34. He has supervised 64 doctoral, 38 master’s and 11 honours students in plant breeding from eastern, southern and western Africa.

Words: Christine Cuénod

Photograph: Supplied