One Rice Breeding Network and Crop Tour 2022 in India create a unified understanding, communication, and learning for researchers

Various breeding trials are in place across India and have been happening for years as part of network-based germplasm-sharing and testing efforts. As a subsequent step, deliberation is underway to streamline methods for on-station and on-farm trials to identify exact-fit products for dissemination through seed system platforms. Through various breeding product validation strategies led by the International Rice Research (IRRI) and its national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) partners, better germplasm can be screened, used, and scaled.

The Rice Breeding Innovations Platform at IRRI has been pioneering the Global One Rice Breeding Strategy Framework through OneIRRI Network . The network is being widely adopted through the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform that aims to accelerate the modernized crop breeding programs that serve farmers in low- and middle-income countries.

This network intends to mainstream, replicate, and scale varietal development, scaling, and delivery programs through partners at national and subnational level through design and knowledge sharing globally. The overarching goal is bridge the gap between product (variety) developers (plant breeders), product disseminators (extension agents), and adopters (value chain stakeholders including farmers) to create a much-needed integration to deliver genetic gain and impact to farmers.

IRRI and its NARES partners are collaborating and developing long-term relationships to achieve far-ranging goals; be it defining various priority market segments for breeding investments, devising product concepts as breeding blueprints for developing varieties for priority market segments, or product profiling and positioning and scaling strategies through seed system innovations.

The network strategy was originally supported through the Accelerated Genetic Gain in Rice project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in 2019. More resources and stakeholders joined the effort on a massive scale as the transformative approaches started showing significant progress and momentum. Today, the established networks and breeding…