New Project Aims to Enhance Plant Breeding Efficiency in the Developing World

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research's (CGIAR) Generation Challenge Program (GCP) has recently launched a five-year, multi-partner project to deploy a web-based Molecular Breeding Platform (MBP) which will be "one-stop-shop for information, analytical tools and related services to design and efficiently conduct molecular-assisted breeding experiments." GCP says that the MBP aims to pull together existing, disparate molecular breeding efforts and provide tools and technical support to enhance plant breeding efficiency in the developing world and beyond. MBP has a budget of USD 21 million, resulting from multilateral funding from various donors, though largely supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Molecular breeding, which employs molecular markers to select plants with desirable traits, has been widely used by the private sector to increase the efficiency of the breeding process. Scientists from the public sector, particularly in developing countries, however have had limited access to this technology. The new Platform aims to bridge this gap.

David Bergvinson, senior officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, notes that the project "is uniquely positioned to promote research collaboration and increase the number of plant varieties available to small farmers in the developing world." MBP will pilot ten pre-existing projects on molecular-assisted breeding covering seven crops across 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

For more information, read http://www.generationcp.org/UserFiles2/File/MBP-Project_press-release_Sep-01-09.pdf and http://www.generationcp.org/latestnews.php?i=1579