How breeding networks are fostering the development of better crop varieties in East Africa

By Dr. Eliud K. Kireger, Director General and Dr. Benjamin Kivuva, Assistant Director, Crop Improvement and Seed Systems Research Programs, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KARLO)

In agriculture for development, collaboration networks play a vital role in the success of research. These networks thrive on the connections between researchers, private companies and public institutions, working together as a system.

At the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KARLO), we understand the power of these systems, especially in crop breeding, which is why we partner with CGIAR, the world’s largest agricultural research organization. As part of a global network, we work alongside research Centers around the world, and in partnership with national Institutes in the East African region.

Within this framework, networks are the engine of innovation, advancing efforts in crop breeding and beyond. By bringing together National Agricultural Research Systems (NARES) like KALRO, CGIAR research Centers, universities, and private enterprises, we pool expertise and resources to create crop varieties that meet the urgent needs of communities in East Africa.

Collaboration at the national level helps identify areas of focus and technical gaps

At the country level, KALRO worked with CGIAR Accelerated Breeding to establish crop-specific, multi-disciplinary groups, called Product Design Teams (PDTs), guiding breeding efforts. PDTs, composed of all the stakeholders across a given crop value chain, define national market segments and their specific needs, then develop Target Product Profiles (TPPs) for each of the defined market segments. TPPs describe the ideal variety that breeders aim to develop to meet these market segments’ requirements. KALRO has led PDT meetings that have successfully defined national market segments for several key crops in Kenya including maize, wheat, potato, sorghum and millet. This exercise is now helping KALRO breeding programs re-prioritize their efforts based on feedback from farmers, processors and the seed industry.

Next, the capacities of key KALRO breeding programs have been self-assessed, with support from CGIAR, in order to identify strengths, weaknesses and gaps that need addressing. Different crop breeding pipelines even within KALRO vary significantly in their breeding capacity and therefore a customized approach to capacity building is required.  Thus far, KALRO has evaluated capacities across diverse breeding programs, including maize, wheat, sorghum, chickpea, and potato. Other programs will be assessed soon to obtain a complete picture of the status of all KALRO primary breeding programs.

Assessments lead to the development of customized improvement plans with clear timelines, responsibilities and key performance indicators. These plans have helped focus efforts where they are most needed. With this, we can organise training to equip technical personnel and scientists with world-class breeding techniques, fortifying their breeding capabilities. We can also request equipment and infrastructure support where necessary, for instance, by getting funding for our breeding stations.

At our Kiboko breeding stations for maize, we benefitted from Crops to End Hunger’s investment in water reservoirs, supporting our maize research there. CIMMYT, one of CGIAR’s Centers working with us at Kiboko, also received support to upgrade the doubled haploid facility and maize screening capacity, which significantly aids our work.

Other priorities, such as improving communication capacity between KALRO stations, led us to identify better internet connectivity as a key area for improvement. Consequently, we enhanced internet connectivity at sites like Njoro to facilitate data management and storage in addition to facilitating data exchange between NARES and CGIAR partners, ensuring that everyone can benefit from real-time insights.

Adopting common procedures and methodologies helps too. We are now implementing Accelerated Breeding’s crop breeding stage-plan, which delineates the sequential steps for new crop projects, with virtual stage gates guiding the movement of material along the breeding and delivery pipeline. At KALRO, we are also standardizing breeding processes, contributing to the establishment of consistent Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to ensure uniformity in crop breeding research, trait identification, and field trials.

This ensures that all research institutions work in a unified manner, sharing the same level of quality data and techniques, thereby facilitating regional and international collaboration.

Regional networks support countries’ comparative advantage in the breeding process

At the regional level, CGIAR coordinated breeding networks are crop specific such as the East Africa Potato Network or the Eastern Africa Highland Banana Network.

These networks facilitate the exchange of market intelligence, such as outputs from national PDT meetings, germplasm, data and capacity sharing. Insights from national PDT meetings for instance guide the identification and prioritization of regional breeding efforts. Working in a regional network also enables partners to leverage each other’s strength where they may have a comparative advantage. For example, some partners may have screening capacities for specific diseases, stresses or quality attributes that other network members can leverage, thus avoiding duplication in investments and conserving funding to address other breeding priorities. By leveraging the comparative advantage of each network member, we can expediate the development of improved varieties at a lower cost thus achieving higher rates of genetic gains across the board.

In some cases, breeding program assessments reveal that a national crop breeding program has all the necessary skills and technical capacity to manage a breeding pipeline for a specific national or regional market segment.  For example, KALRO has assumed leadership for maize breeding in the East African highlands, as we hold the maize genetic material specific to this region and have the necessary technical expertise.  We obtained funding from the regional maize network to scale up the KALRO East Africa maize highland breeding pipeline and we will soon be releasing improved maize varieties for the East African highland region.

Regional collaboration extends beyond technical issues, encompassing the evaluation and release of new varieties across regions. In East Africa for example, when a variety is released in one country, partners can test it and decide whether it should be released in another. A variety that performs well in Rwanda might not do well in Kenya, and vice versa.

Conclusion

Efforts to harmonize and differentiate practices balance country-specific needs with the collective strength of the network. In recent years, we have seen the impact of this approach, with fifteen new varieties expected to be released over the next year. Moving forward, formalizing networks with official membership agreements will be crucial to ensure commitment and cohesion among participating countries.

The journey ahead will continue to be one of collaboration, innovation, and shared success, driving positive transformations in agriculture and beyond.

Resources:

• Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO)
• What traits of collaboration networks are associated with project success? The case of two CGIAR agricultural research programs for development
• Maize Doubled Haploid Production Services

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Main image: Maize Product Design Team meeting, at KALRO, organised in collaboration with CGIAR Accelerated Breeding. Credit: CGIAR. Written with Julie Puech. This work contributes to CGIAR Breeding for Tomorrow (B4T) Science Program through its Accelerated Breeding Area of Work.