AlphaSimR is a GitLab repositorium with R code addressing multiple simulation questions for designing breeding programs. This includes proper program size, experimental designs, surrogates of genetic merit, reduction of cycle time, among others (this is only accessible to a small number of users on request).
Link: https://gitlab.com/excellenceinbreeding/module2
Contact: g.covarrubias@cgiar.org
A tool to explore the trade offs among multiple traits using selection indices. Final weights for selection can be used using this tool.
Link: https://bkinghor.une.edu.au/desire.htm
Contact: bkinghor@une.edu.au
A tool to perform multi environment trial analysis and obtain adjusted means for genotypes that can be used in recycling, selection decisions and genetic gain calculation.
Link: apariciojohan.github.io/MrBeanApp/
Contact: j.aparicio@cgiar.org
The Breeding Scheme Designer is a tool to explore trade offs between different evaluations strategies in breeding programs using stochastic simulation. Comparisons of different scenarios with respect to genetic gain and genetic gain per dollar invested are enabled.
Version 1. Excel format
In order to deliver higher rates of genetic gain and variety turnover, breeding programs targeting low- to middle-income countries must adopt standard best practices in breeding scheme design in order to enable a continuous process of optimization to deliver on breeding targets (product profiles).
The CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform has developed this series of practical and conceptual manuals to set a common terminology and conceptual framework to visualize the main steps in a breeding process.
The “Breeding Costing Tool” is software made freely available from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation and the University of Queensland in Australia.
It is a powerful solution for allowing users to “estimate the cost of crop breeding and its associated research activities and to help breeders make decisions about resource allocation.
Nematodes are diverse metazoans with an estimated one million species covering nearly all ecosystems in their roles as bacterivores, herbivores, parasites of animals and plants, and consumers of dissolved as well as particulate organic matter.
Their economic impact was estimated at a loss of $118 billion in 2001, half of that in rice and maize alone. Accuracy of species identification is therefore fundamental to our understanding and communication of the ecological role of any organism.
Maize hybrid seed provides farmers with varieties containing improved genetics, such as high yield potential and unique trait combinations to counter diseases and adverse growing conditions.
This book represents a compilation of work done in the area of “selection indices” in animal and plant breeding.
Selection indices were originally developed by Smith (1936) in plant breeding and by Hazel (1943) in animal breeding to address the selection of plants or animals scored for multiple traits.
In agriculture, the breeding worth (or net genetic merit) of a candidate for selection depends on several traits. For example, grain yield, disease resistance, and flowering time.
Toolbox
Sarah Hearne
Sarah Hearne’s work focuses on the interface between genetic resources and plant breeding and in the adaptation/development and use of tools to enhance the identification and transfer of useful native genetic variation from exotic germplasm to breeding germplasm. She leads the maize and informatics work of the Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) initiative at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT). Hearne is presently a Principal Scientist at CIMMYT. Previously, she was a Plant Molecular Geneticist/Physiologist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Hearne holds a doctoral degree on morphological, physiological and molecular interactions between maize and the parasitic angiosperm Striga hermonthica from the University of Sheffield – U.K.