Created by CGIAR in 2003 as a time-bound 10-year Programme, the mission of the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) is to use genetic diversity and advanced plant science to improve crops by adding value to breeding for drought-prone and harsh environments. This is achieved through a network of more than 200 partners drawn from the members of the CGIAR Consortium, academia, regional and national research programs, and capacity enhancement to assist developing-world researchers to access technologies and to tap into a broader and richer pool of plant genetic diversity.
GCP’s workplan for Phase II (2009–2014) is building on a set of seven crop-and region-specific Research Initiatives (RIs) focusing on drought tolerance for nine key crops (see below), and on an integrated service component. While the RIs aim to demonstrate – through selected user cases – that modern and integrated breeding approaches can have a significant impact on crop productivity in developing countries, the service component (the Integrated Breeding Platform [IBP]) is conceived as a vehicle for the dissemination of knowledge and technology, enabling broad access to, and proactive distribution of, crop genetic stocks and breeding material; molecular, genomics and informatics technology and information; cost-effective high-throughput laboratory services; and capacity-building programs.
The CGIAR germplasm banks were originally conceived purely for conservation but breeders now realise the high value of also studying these collections and how they perform under different field conditions.
To bring this diversity down from the shelf for breeding, GCP Phase I (2004–2008) supported the identification of reference sets for 19 important food crops: these sets comprise a few hundred accessions widely representative of each crop’s own genetic diversity. In addition, GCP supported the development of mutants, introgression lines, nested and multi-parent advanced generation intercross (MAGIC) populations, as well as segregating bi-parental line populations to identify new favourable alleles (different forms of a gene [one member of a pair] located at a specific position on a specific chromosome. These DNA codings determine distinct traits that can be passed on from parents to offspring).
Availability of appropriate genetic resources is critical to identify genes of interest and breed for them in target germplasm – a crucial activity in the seven RIs. Through a concerted and sustained effort in Phase I, GCP supported the development of genetic resources for a broad range of crops, with a particular focus on less-studied (sometimes referred to as ‘orphan’) crops to a level that now makes molecular breeding a reality for those important staple crops. More recently, GCP supported the conversion, for ten target crops, of a core set of publicly available single nucleotide polymorphism resources (SNPs) to a breeding-friendly genotyping platform to render them accessible for high-throughput and low-cost molecular breeding applications through IBP.
Following the CGIAR reform, and in conformity with GCP’s Transition Strategy drafted in mid-2010 and GCP’s Medium-Term Plan for 2011–2013, effective 2011, GCP’s research activities were embedded in the CGIAR Research Programs on Wheat, Maize, Rice, Roots, Tubers and Bananas (cassava), Grain Legumes (beans, chickpeas, cowpeas, groundnuts), and Dryland Cereals (sorghum).
