Graduate / The impact of the Erasmus Mundus emPLANT master's scholarship in your home country [3]

Hey guys....i don't really know how this works but please help me revise my essay since the dead line is in two days. thanks for your help in advance

eritrean farmers with new opportunities

A growing number of African countries are increasingly becoming food insecure because of delayed and insufficient rainfall, as well as crop damaging pests causing the most severe crisis. In Eritrea, more than 70% of the people depend on farming and it is of prime importance for our economy. But farming is practiced on the basis of archaic and traditional methods. Although the total area under crop production has increased in the last few years and the construction of dams, reservoirs, and supplementary irrigation has increased the yield of cereals and horticultural crops, considerable improvement could not be achieved to cover the food requirement of the country and promote food security.

The response to those challenges in our country and the world is to harness all instruments of sustainable agricultural growth; and plant biotechnology is one such instrument. In many developing countries, including Eritrea, there is a growing realization that plant biotechnology could make a valuable contribution toward solving the urgent problem of food supply and reducing poverty. The capacity of biotechnology to provide improved crops, both in quality and quantity holds a great promise to achieve sustainable food security and poverty eradication. At the moment research development and applications of modern biotechnology are relatively new to Eritrea.

It is in this regards that acquiring a master's degree emPLANT from your reputable universities will be of a huge importance to my home country. Upon my return, my plan is to collaborate with the Association of Eritreans in Agricultural sciences (AEAS). This organization's main objectives are to build-up and implement knowledge-based agriculture in Eritrea. By associating with this organization my first objective will be to strengthen the linkage between research and producers since those linkages will provide the producers with new innovative agricultural technologies and knowledge. I also plan to work with the ministry of agriculture to train and mentor young people with the same interest in plant technologies, so that the technologies can rescue farmers from the many threats facing the agricultural sector. The knowledge and expertise I must have garnered from the program, will also enable me to carryout need-felt researches necessary to the ministry of agriculture specially the plant breeding sector.

The master concepts of traditional and modern breeding technologies I gain at your program will help me provide many farmers in my country new opportunities for achieving productivity gains, improved nutritional quality, increased transportability and many other benefits. Additionally, in the long run, it will help my country to achieve its long term objective of ensuring food security for all its citizens.