A new direction for CGIAR crop breeding to invest where it counts

Message from Breeding for Tomorrow (B4T) Interim Director Peter Coaldrake to CGIAR Breeders, National Partners, and Funders. 

CGIAR has a track record of 50 years of success in the field of crop innovation, credited with spurring the Green Revolution and saving a billion lives, primarily in Asia where many people were on the brink of starvation.  

Today, as we aim to end hunger by 2030 through science that transforms food, land, and water systems, we must focus our crop breeding activities to be more efficient than never – we can no longer afford to spread our efforts too thin. The future of CGIAR crop breeding depends on prioritization, making clear, strategic choices about where and how we invest. 

This is not just about internal reform. It is a direct response to guidance from our largest funders and partners, such as the Gates Foundation, which has called for Breakthrough Products – crop varieties that trigger replacement and widespread uptake. Incremental improvements are no longer enough. 

To meet this challenge, CGIAR’s Breeding for Tomorrow is sharpening its agenda and aligning our breeding strategy with the demands of today’s world. How do we get there? 

Refocusing crop breeding for maximum impact

Through collaboration across CGIAR Centers, national programs, and funders, we’ve developed a clear set of Accelerated Breeding Goals for 2025. These goals reflect the essential capabilities every CGIAR breeding program must achieve to remain globally relevant, scientifically excellent, and locally impactful. 

This process was not theoretical. It drew on late 2024 deep-dive consultations with breeders, strategic consensus during the Crop Lead Meeting in Dubai (October 2024), and robust analysis of our alignment with donor expectations. These goals are practical, measurable, and focused on enabling breeding teams to deliver improved varieties faster, more efficiently, and at greater scale. 

But this won’t happen without change. 

Fewer pipelines, better products

We are moving away from fragmented, broad-scope investments. Instead, we are empowering breeders with the tools, data, and strategic guidance to make sharper, evidence-based decisions. For the first time, we now link impact indicators, breeding pipelines, market segments, and country-level data — providing a powerful lens for determining where and how to invest for maximum return. 

Between 2022 and 2024, CGIAR teams defined over 400 Target Product Profiles (TPPs). Each TPP includes the essential to improve traits, essential to maintain traits and nice to have traits. This information, captured in the Breeding Portal and made publicly available through the Global Market Intelligence Platform (GloMIP), provides the most comprehensive and standardized view of breeding priorities in CGIAR’s history. 

We are now linking these essential to improve traits to CGIAR’s five Impact Areas and to defined value propositions; clear, outcome-oriented statements such as “higher productivity for farmers” or “less loss and risk due to biotic stress.” Fifteen value propositions have been identified to guide this process. 

From this point forward, breeding programs will focus on one to three value propositions per target product profile – no more. These must reflect real demand and drive real replacement in the field. Together with partners, we are scrutinizing every pipeline and market segment for relevance, scale, and potential impact. In some cases, breeding for smaller, lower-return market segments may be transitioned to national programs who are better positioned to serve them. 

Improving how we breed  

Sharper focus must go hand in hand with modernizing breeding approaches. All CGIAR breeding programs will implement minimum operational standards to ensure quality and efficiency. This includes deploying cutting-edge digital tools like the Breeding Analytics Pipeline (Bioflow), managing data through the Enterprise Breeding System (EBS), and adopting improved experimental designs. 

Inconsistent trial sites and ineffective methods must be fixed or phased out. High-throughput phenotyping for all essential traits will be scaled up and deployed during early-stage testing and early-stage testing will be conducted under conditions that reflect those faced by farmers. The use of molecular breeding techniques, including marker-assisted selection, genomic selection, and genomic-assisted breeding, will be mainstreamed. 

The goal is clear: increase accuracy, selection intensity, and genetic gain, while reducing cycle time. These are the levers that impact breeding success. 

Partnering with purpose

CGIAR cannot deliver improved products. Our success depends on the strength of our partnerships, especially with National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES). 

We are restructuring local breeding networks to operate more strategically and more equitably. National are now helping to define regional value propositions and participate in decision-making around product advancement and technical planning, including identification and evaluation of lines from new crosses. 

Agreements with Level 1 and Level 2 partners are being standardized. Funding allocations are being clarified: which NARES and SME partners will lead breeding versus testing within each priority market segment. By 2030, we aim for 30% of operational network funding to flow directly to NARES partners to strengthen their breeding and testing capacities. 

To scale, these partners must see themselves as co-creators, not just beneficiaries.

Breeders are not alone: a whole team is dedicated to supporting the adoption of the 2025 Goals  

Accelerated Breeding’s core mission is to support this transformation in the Breeding for Tomorrow Science Program. We are investing in tools, people, systems and processes that will help breeding teams deliver on the 2025 goals. A new series of webinars are providing step-by-step guidance, showcase, and offer a forum for breeders and to exchange insights and ask questions.  

The path ahead demands bold action. We have the roadmap, and are actively developing the tools, and the partnerships to make it happen. 

Resources:

• Visit Accelerated Breeding 2025 Goals resource hub
• Contact CGIAR Breeding for Tomorrow for support and questions
• Learn more about Accelerated Breeding
• Accelerated Breeding 2024 annual report
• Initiative result: Transforming breeding partnerships for greater impact
• Initiative result: Providing African farmers with better varieties faster

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Main image: Wheat fields at the Campo Experimental Norman E. Borlaug (CENEB) near Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico. Photo credit: M. Ellis/CIMMYT. Written by Julie Puech. This work contributes to CGIAR Breeding for Tomorrow (B4T) Science Program through its Accelerated Breeding Area of Work.