The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Windhoek has announced a collaboration with the University of Namibia (UNAM) campus in Ogongo, Omusati Region, to develop a tissue culture laboratory.

A tissue culture laboratory is a structure that houses small plants that are grown in a climate chamber or growth chamber for research, breeding or multiplication. It consists of media rooms, cutting rooms and growth chambers.

The partnership between the two institutions is expected to expand their collaboration in other fields of study, particularly the establishment of an Indonesia-Africa centre to promote an academic network of universities and people-to-people contacts between Indonesia and Africa.

Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia, Wisnu Edi Pratignyo told Nampa on Tuesday that two renowned tissue culture experts had already arrived in Namibia on 19 June 2022.

“Professor Taryono, Head of Universitas Gadjah Mada’s Centre for Agrotechnology Innovation (PIAT UGM), and Pranowo Singgihsandjojo will be visiting the UNAM Ogongo Campus to provide capacity building on managing and developing the campus’s tissue culture laboratory. Staff from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform Namibia, as well as researchers and lecturers from UNAM will take part in the programme. From June to September 2022, a capacity-building programme will be implemented,” he said.

The ambassador stated that UGM and UNAM signed an agreement on academic collaboration in May 2009 and that UGM was instrumental in the development of the Kalimbeza Rice Project in the Zambezi Region.

In October 2017, both universities agreed to extend the MoU. The agreement’s concrete implementation is a capacity-building programme for tissue culture laboratories.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency