Plant and Animal Innovation Experts Discuss Practical Strategies to Advance Plant Breeding

Market research, collating literature, and action plan for changing approaches are some of the practical steps to make breeding of new plant varieties an enabling technology for developing countries. These were discussed by experts for innovation in plant, animal, and food sciences who gathered in Brisbane, Australia on November 20-22, 2017 during the International Tropical Agriculture Conference in 2017. 

According to Vivienne Anthony, a senior scientific advisor to the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture working in Africa, the current development challenges she has seen in plant breeding fails to take into account the needs of the market, consumer, and industry. She suggested that demand-led plant variety design should be studied by breeders and researchers. " Although common sense should prevail, it is not always easy," Anthony said. "If scientists are focused on achieving breakthroughs, they are too busy to talk to people, which could influence what it is you should be doing. Most scientists aren't used to going out and doing market research, but they need to," she added.

Read more from Devex and the conference website.