ELFF - Ethiopian Lupins for food and feed

The Ethiopian lupins for food & feed (ELFF) project will improve livelihoods for Ethiopian smallholder farmers by: i) improving supplies of high quality protein for animal feed, ii) providing a potential cash crop for human consumption & iii) improving soil fertility & thus crop productivity. This innovative project will explore the feasibility of a white lupin breeding programme to combine traits from Ethiopian & UK varieties, producing lines that benefit Ethiopian farmers in the first instance but also lines benefiting agriculture in many other countries. Ethiopian agriculture relies heavily on livestock but lack of affordable protein sources means that livestock is not reaching its full value. Developing sweet white lupins for grain & forage could revolutionise smallholder agriculture in many parts of Ethiopia. The project will assess Ethiopian varieties to identify promising lines for improvement, & identify markers & genes that confer low alkaloid production. These loci can be used in a subsequent targetted & marker assisted breeding programme. The project will also conduct a feasibility study for a full-scale breeding programme based on the ELFF project, develop a comprehensive business strategy for novel varieties in Ethiopia & also for possible introduction of lupins into the surrounding African countries.