New Initiative Will Harness Biotech to Improve Developing Countries' Breeding Efficiency

The Generation Challenge Program (GCP) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have launched a new global initiative that aims to increase crop breeding efficiency in developing countries. Dubbed as the Molecular Breeding Platform (MBP), the initiative will be a one-stop shop for information, analytical tools and related services to design and efficiently conduct molecular-assisted breeding experiments.

"The five-year USD 12 Million project would revolutionize crop breeding and provide a level playing field allowing developing countries to take advantage of advanced plant breeding technology to meet the looming challenge in food security," says Dave Bergvinson, Program Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bergvinson noted that molecular breeding can succeed in the public sector, especially by partnering with the private sector, particularly with small- and medium-scale enterprises. He mentioned as an example Swarna-Sub-1, a flood-tolerant rice hybrid developed by marker assisted selection that has been successfully tested and adopted by the Bisauri Regional Progressive farmers Association in Uttar Pradesh under the supervision of Banaras Hindu University.

 The MBP launch will be followed by a two-step launch program for a GCP Indo–Chinese research initiative to improve wheat yields.

The original story is available at http://www.icrisat.org/newsroom/news-releases/icrisat-pr-2010-media3.htm