Episode 10: Deidre and the 4 decades.

We’ve bean around the block host Antony Jarvie interviews Dr Deidre Fourie to celebrate the last four decades of bean research at the Grain Crops Research Institute in Potchefstroom. Deidre has recently retired from leading the team, and the interview covers the last 4 decades of bean research, organised in eras and covers the major decisions, developments and achievements. The intent of the show is to give credit the characters that have dedicated their lives to bean improvement in southern Africa.

The Willem Vermeulen era

• Establishment of the disease-free certification scheme, which is the bed-rock of our current industry.
• The diseases which were included in the scheme
• The seed production areas and protocols that still stand today

The Liebenberg era

• The brave decision to deploy the ‘I’ gene (more on this is published on the Plant Breeders website)
• The building of an amazing breeding team
  • Andries Liebenberg with his agronomy background
  • Brian Edington with a genetics background
  • Meri Liebenberg with her mycology expertise
  • Deidre Fourie with her bacteriology background
• Improvement of rust resistance, common blight, halo blight, plant architecture and seed size/quality

The Fourie era

• Following the retirement of Andries and Meri, Deidre took over the helm. She has been able to (single handedly) maintain the plant breeding momentum built over several decades and still develop and release new and innovative products.
• Her retirement leaves the GCRI at a crossroads in its history. What can the GCRI do to maintain the momentum of the last 40 years?

 

The show is wrapped up with two plant breeding stories, explaining how some of South Africa’s favourite bean cultivars were developed.