About us

Science to enable genetic gain and trait delivery in Africa's dryland cereals

The Green Evolution project is building the foundations for sustained genetic gain (Outcome 1) and regular trait delivery (Outcome 2) in the African NARS-CGIAR breeding networks for sorghum and millet. At a high level, Green Evolution is designed to facilitate the nascent NARS-CGIAR breeding networks (Figure A) for sorghum and millet in several ways:

Turn upstream R&D investment by BMGF and others (genomics, training, breeding informatics, value chain knowledge, etc.) into breeder-friendly technology that is directly used in prebreeding and breeding decisions ("connecting the dots")
Co-develop, and rapidly deploy, effective trait technology and prebreeding resources within the NARS-CGIAR networks
Establish NARS ability to advance prebreeding and breeding objectives pursuant to the NARS-CGIAR market segments
Catalyze a transformation in the effectiveness of NARS-CGIAR breeding networks to achieve genetic gain and trait delivery

Figure A: Alignment of Green Evolution outcomes to NARS-CGIAR breeding networks (ADCIN). Market segments of the NARS-CGIAR breeding networks (ADCIN) are shown. The GE activities to identify and build elite gene pools across the breeding networks (Outcome 1.1) will facilitate genetic gain for yield within regional market segments. Further, development of trait technology packages for compatibility (Outcome 1.2) will allow breeding programs to share traits and yield alleles across market segments while retaining eliteness. GE trait deliverables (Outcome 2) are aligned to each of the market segments. Specific trait demand from NARS-CGIAR breeders are listed for each market segment.

Sorghum and pearl millet are critically important crops in Africa, particularly for small-scale producers and communities in the drylands. These crops represent the main cereal cropping options of the vast semi-arid zone of Sub-Saharan Africa and are thus drivers of agricultural transformation in these areas. For example, in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, sorghum and millet together make up more than 70% of the total cereal production. These crops are also important for livestock feed.

This project will support the accelerated development of climate-smart sorghum and millet varieties by the new OneCG breeding programs in Africa (being established by CIMMYT). This will be accomplished by building elite gene pools, as well as discovering and deploying climate-smart traits, all employing modern pangenomics-enabled approaches. The work will be done in close collaboration with NARS partners and CIMMYT breeders.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse