Africa’s agricultural research institutes are on a clearer path to developing and delivering more and better nutrient-rich, climate-resilient crops through strengthened partnerships with CGIAR. Enhanced collaboration on crop breeding strategies and technologies is a major step towards developing varieties demanded by farmers and consumers.
A groundbreaking new dataset and analysis is set to ensure crop breeders develop new varieties that benefit the world’s most disadvantaged people.
Over the last year, global supply chains and service providers have been affected by rising inflation, costs and challenges. Genotyping services and inputs in particular are affected by rising demand due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform (EiB) has been proactive in maintaining the availability and quality of our brokered genotyping services throughout ongoing challenges. For 2022, there will be a small cost increase to our partners as a result of the higher prices charged by our trusted service partners.
In March 2021, a new network of specialists, the Breeding Informatics Network (BrIN) was established to standardize and modernize breeding data storage, access, curation, analysis, visualization, and decision support. The ultimate goal of BrIN is to improve quality and efficiency in delivering improved varieties to farmers. On December 15, 2021, BrIN celebrated their 2021 successes, and recognized key contributors around the globe.
CGIAR drone team in a maize field in India (Source: ICRISAT)
New and more accessible digital phenotyping technologies and methods can help breeding programs collect data faster and better. EiB is partnering across CGIAR to expand, accelerate and streamline adoption.
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 Meeting allowed participants to share ideas on driving implementation for impact.
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."
