What are the best practices for modern breeding? CGIAR-EiB coalition shares excellence, innovations, opportunities

From
CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform (EiB)
Published on
19.11.20
Impact Area
Food security
Funders
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, DFID, Gates Foundation, Germany, United States of America

Through “sharing excellence” across programs and geographies, crop breeders are ready to deliver higher rates of genetic gain and varietal turnover. This was the theme of November 10-12’s Excellence in Breeding (EiB) Virtual Meeting 2020, where nearly 250 breeders and leaders came together to share principles, successes and opportunities.

The event kicked off with EiB Director Michael Quinn and Deputy Director Jan Debaene reiterating that the breeding program modernization efforts in CGIAR require us to implement change – which, they noted, is hard!

“To be successful, a change initiative needs clear lines of accountability, sponsorship – particularly from senior leadership, technical support, financial support, standards and a unified platform,” Debaene told attendees to open the Western time zone sessions. “We can do this together.”

EiB has tools and services to support these needs, and has been delivering them through holistic partnerships, along with coordination at the systems level.

Over 12 breakout sessions, each of EiB’s interlinked modules laid out their vision, challenges, and services to breeding partners. For example, Young Wha Lee described how her Breeding Informatics module team will be releasing a one-stop data management platform called the Enterprise Breeding System (EBS), so that breeders can focus on using data to create better varieties, faster.

Videos of the module breakout sessions can be viewed here: