All news and blogs

To meet breeding targets, we must be willing to change: EiB’s 2021 Virtual Meeting

EiB news | Misha Nicholas | 2/12/2021

 As the CGIAR and NARES breeding community push towards increased genetic gains and reducing the weighted average age of varieties, the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding’s (EiB) 2021 Virtual...

New costing tool helps sharpen crop breeding investments

EiB news | Adam Hunt | 2/12/2021

Maize breeders visit a KALRO research station in Kiboko, Kenya (Source: KALRO)  Traditionally, many public national breeding programs have not prioritized the costing of their...

Breeding’s African food security contribution is a numbers game: EiB at APBA

EiB news | Misha Nicholas | 4/11/2021

Photo Credit: IRRI. CGIAR Excellence in Breeding (EiB) informatics lead Young Wha Lee understands that breeding "has always been — and still is — a numbers game." Lee and her EiB colleagues recently...

Five ways crop breeding can benefit rural women

Opinion | Misha Nicholas | 12/10/2021

A woman cassava farmer in the Northern Region of Ghana. Credit: Neil Palmer (CIAT)   Too often, agricultural progress is inhibited by innovations designed by and for men. But what would happen if women were involved in design and development? One aspect of...

National breeding institutes deliver initial program costing at in-person training course

EiB news | Adam Hunt | 6/10/2021

  NARES course participants cost out aspects of their program using the UQ costing tool.  A new costing tool is helping national breeding programs get the...

Access to genetic analysis accelerates banana breeding in East Africa

Impact | Sam Storr | 30/9/2021

This story is also available in Amharic: View it here.Research at the Musa sp. nursery at IITA-Kampala (Brigitte Uwimama). Banana producers face many pests and diseases that affect their crop, such as Panama disease caused by soil fungi,...

How can I optimize my breeding scheme?

Tool release | Sam Storr | 1/9/2021

The basic science underlying the process of genetic improvement in crops is now well-understood, if not widely applied. EiB applies these quantitative principles to develop practical advice and guides to help breeders optimize their programs.The goal of breeding scheme optimization is to...

CGIAR Annual Performance Report 2020 now available online

Partner news | | 1/8/2021

The COVID-19 pandemic made 2020 a challenging year, placing considerable strain on global food systems. A new online report, CGIAR Annual Performance Report 2020: Growing Resilience for a Better Future, details how CGIAR worked with partners...

Strengthening Public Breeding Pipelines by Emphasizing Quantitative Genetics Principles and Open Source Data Management

Opinion | | 26/7/2021

 This opinion piece published in Frontiers in Plant Science briefly presents the breeder's equation and highlights the terms that can be manipulated to increase...

New CGIAR Initiatives announced to help radically realign food, land, and water systems

Partner news | | 25/7/2021

Today at the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) 2021 Pre-Summit, CGIAR announces an exciting new research and innovation prospectus to transform food, land, and water systems in a...