October 26, 2022

In East and South Africa, rice consumption and demand are increasing at a faster rate than any other crop. Farmers in this region continue to use old varieties that were released many years ago and are not climate-resilient. The breeders use a conventional pedigree-based varietal development process, which is slow, laborious and takes more than a decade to release a new variety.

Data analysis using plant breeding tools

To bring a major transformation in the national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) breeding in Eastern and South Africa, a weeklong workshop on “Breeding Program Modernization: Speed and Smart Breeding Technologies” was organized by the International Rice Research Institute’s (IRRI) Breeding Modernization and CGIAR’s Excellence in Breeding (EiB) teams in Mwea-Kenya from 19-23 September 2022.

Hands-on HT Genotyping- sampling procedure during the field visit in Mwea-Kirogo

More than 30 rice breeders from 12 research stations in Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organization (KALRO), Kenya and Mozambique's Institute of Agricultural Research (IIAM have participated in this workshop. In addition to the field experience, participants were introduced to scientific and technical knowledge and practical speed and smart breeding methods and procedures. The Field Rapid Generation Advance (F-RGA), where 2-3 generations can be achieved in a year, digitization and bar-coding, data management and analysis, high throughput single-nucleotide polymorphisms (HT SNP) genotyping and high -quality phenotyping, best community of practices (CoPs) to increase genetic gains were covered during the training workshop.

Drs. Sanjay Katiyar, Reshmi Das, Suresh Kadaru, and Rosemary Murori from IRRI and EiB facilitated the training program.

Speed and smart breeding technologies have been adopted by South Asian NARES at a massive scale to develop climate-resilient, high-yielding varieties.
 

Website: http://www.irri.org

Published: October 26, 2022