Mission
The Laboratory of Tropical Crop Improvement focuses its research on breeding tropical crops, integrating:
- conventional breeding
- molecular breeding
- functional genomics & phenotyping
The Laboratory also actively contributes to safeguarding biodiversity. Therefore it hosts the Bioversity International office in Belgium.
Prof. H. Vanderschuren (lab head) teaches at undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels & supervises research activities related to plant genetics and tropical crops.
Prof. R.L. Swennen collaborates on activities related to banana research.
Goal
Improving of the livelihood of subsistence farmers in the tropics through sustainable agriculture by acting as a bridge between fundamental research on model plants and applied research in support of the improvement of tropical crops, with special emphasis on banana and plantain
Impact
Fundamental & applied research must lead to applications for smallholders in the tropics, the industry and society, both in the temperate and tropical regions. This is a two way approach: applications result in new feedback to science.
The world's largest banana collection