PLANT BREEDING WORKSHOP: 3RD - 7TH AUGUST, 2015 IN ARUSHA, TANZANIA
PURPOSE
The aim of the workshop is to facilitate a participatory diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses of CCRP-funded crop
improvement programs, broadly viewed with an AEI lens (including our understanding of germplasm, through
recombination, selection and seed systems). We will examine opportunities to improve the performance of these
programs, including through collaboration with farmers and others through farmer research networks.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
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Group for on-going collaboration in crop improvement established
Self-diagnosis
Skill-building
Specific proposals for changes to projects that meeting participants will take back to the rest of their team.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Paul Kusolwa (SAf; lead organizer)
Prudence Kaijage (SAf Regional Rep)
Eva Weltzien (WAf)
Vivian Polar (Andes)
Ric Coe (METI)
Bettina Haussmann (Waf Liaison Scientist)
Rebecca Nelson (CCRP)
DRAFT PROGRAM
DAY 1
Morning 1A
 General welcomes and review of plans for the week
 The art of self-critique and the critical friend; the roles
of scholarship, networking, etc.
 Presentation about crop improvement in the CCRP
context: what is distinctive about our approach and
why.
o Breeding, crop diversity and AEI
o The GxExMxS framework and the The OxC
framework more generally
o FRNs and how they relate to crop improvement
o Gender/equity issues
Introduction and welcomes:
Participant introductions by gallery walk: Each
participant presents a mini-poster of their breeding
program.
Gallery walk.
Paul
Prudence
CCRP presentation (Rebecca?)
Reviewing handout provided
during late June!!
Coffee
Morning 1B
Questions for participants to comment on:
 What have you seen that is novel or unusual I terms of
approaches and methods?
 What have you seen that you would like to discuss
further?
 Do you see opportunities to collaborate?
Each participant will respond
to these questions on yellow
sticky papers. These will be
collected by project and will
serve as a baseline for the
week. Each breeding program
stakes out a PosterZone to
develop over the week.
To what extent is the program aligned with the CCRP
approach?
Need to give participants the
guidelines on this ASAP!
Breeding pipelines: Conceptualizing the processes and
the related issues.
Eva to lead?
Lunch
Afternoon 1C
 Start with the over-arching goals and keep them in
mind
 Deconstruct into steps
 Identify key issues associated with each step using a
series of “lenses”
o AEI
o Gender/equity
o Efficiency
o Crop-specific concerns
o Technology
 Locating each of the programs represented on the
pipeline
Coffee
Afternoon 1D
Each breeder makes their own version of the pipeline,
indicated their emphases and initial diagnoses (what
they want to strengthen)
Add ideas to the PosterZone;
do a quick gallery walk
If time remains, breeders do literature work on their
crop or related crops, addressing their self-diagnoses
[Rebecca to bring TEEAL; how good will the Internet
be?]
Dinner
DAY 2
Morning 2A
Crop genetic diversity (issues around “G”)
 Roles of diversity
 Approaches to analysis
o Farmer typologies of crop diversity
o DNA methods
 Why and how is it (G?) important
 Farmers’ rights and other issues related to intellectual
property
 How can breeding programs influence diversity (+/-)
Case studies of relevance to the group
Presentation by Biodiversity
person (Pablo Eyzaguirre
invited)
Participants to
reflect/research/comment on
each of these topics and add
to PosterZone. How does
these insights influence the
breeding program?
 The multiple roles and uses
of each of our crops.
 What is known about
landrace diversity; folk
taxonomies?
 What is known at the level
of molecular diversity?
Coffee
Morning 2B
Adaptation (issues around G, E, and GxE)
Bettina?
Presentation on this topic, to be followed by a
discussion.
 Environmental heterogeneity – going beyond
breeders’ traditional E factors to include social,
economic etc.
 Macro and micro variation
 Sampling target environments
 Social heterogeneity and its implications for trait and
variety preferences
 Inter-annual variation
Group considers these issues
for their crops; add ideas to
PosterZone
 Mechanisms of adaptation: what’s known, what are
the implications
 Broad v. narrow
 Each program should identify key literature on their
crop.
Lunch
Afternoon 2C
Generating diversity: making crosses
Bettina?
 Choosing parents… why and when wide crosses are
important; when and why elite x elite crosses make
sense, etc. Do we know enough to make strategic
crosses to create novel diversity?
 How many crosses? How many progeny?
 Crossing techniques
 Practical issues re: efficiency
Focus on challenges and
concerns (discussion; notes
for PosterZone)
Fixation and selection
Eva?
Coffee
Afternoon 2D
 Selection theory as a useful framework (Atlin et al.,
2001)
 Generation advance: when to start selection
 Sampling target environments; efficiency of direct v.
indirect selection
 Upsides and down-sides of on-station and on-farm
selection
 Social, including gender, interactions in preferences
and adoptability of varieties
Focus on challenges and
concerns (discussion; notes
for PosterZone)
Reasons for and ways of working with farmers, including
in FRN-type setups
Dinner
DAY 3
Morning 3A
Trialing: METs
Ric
 Where are we, and what do we need to tackle?
 Revisiting the issue of sampling target environments:
spatial analysis and its relevance to crop improvement.
Coffee
Morning 3B
 METS and FRNs
Charles Wasonga, CIP and
AgRISS
Ric, Eva, Bettina
Discussion: Could FRN-type
work benefit your breeding
program?
Lunch
Afternoon 3C
Discussion of METs, FRNs, and their implications
Add ideas to PosterZone
Managing data and information along the pipeline:
issues, options, ways forward
Ric and Eva
Coffee
Afternoon 3D
 The concept of “dataflow”as a corollary to the
concept of a breeding pipeline
Participants: self-diagnosis on
data issues: where are we,
and what do we want to
change?
Add ideas and plans to
PosterZone
Dinner
DAY 4
Morning 4A
 Integrated Breeding Platform
o What is it, what opportunities does it present, and
how can you avail, and why might it not be the
answer to everything
Eva
The Cutting Edge in crop improvement – what can we
learn from the latest developments world-wide?
Jeff Ehlers
Seed systems: how do farmers gain access to the
products of formal and informal plant breeding?
Eva
Coffee
Morning 4B
 Constraints
 Innovations
 Seed quality issues: Genetic, physiological and
phytosanitary
 Regulatory frameworks: How are they relevant? What
constraints do they impose?
 Any need for policy reform to serve farmers’ interests?
 The fake seed problem
Participants do critical
reflection on seed issues
related to their crops; ideas to
PosterZone
 Seed systems that support farmers and bypass
unhelpful regulation
Lunch
Afternoon 4C
Participants make posters to describe the seed systems
issues for their crop
Coffee
Afternoon 4D
Opportunities for cooperation - 1
 Germplasm sharing across regions if relevant (e.g.,
cowpea)
 Cooperative trialing schemes
Use of common tools and protocols
Dinner
DAY 5
Morning 5A
Self-diagnosis: participants critically analyze their
breeding pipelines and prepare plans for improvement
Morning 5B
Planning, continued
Coffee
Lunch
Afternoon 5C
Opportunities for cooperation - 2
 Following up on issues identified
Tackling remaining issues
Coffee
Afternoon 5D
Dinner
Discussion of hot issues remaining
Add to PosterZone; do a
gallery walk