Sharing lessons for soybean breeding in Africa
The recent IITA–CGIAR Knowledge Café seminar, held on 4 November, was an insightful session. The session featured Professor Brian Diers, a leading soybean geneticist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois, who shared practical insights on “Lessons to improve African breeding success” by leveraging lessons learned from the United States soybean-breeding context. Introducing the guest speaker, Dr Abush Abebe, IITA Soybean
Sharing lessons for soybean breeding in Africa
The recent IITA–CGIAR Knowledge Café seminar, held on 4 November, was an insightful session. The session featured Professor Brian Diers, a leading soybean geneticist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois, who shared practical insights on “Lessons to improve African breeding success” by leveraging lessons learned from the United States soybean-breeding context.
Introducing the guest speaker, Dr Abush Abebe, IITA Soybean Breeder, who described Professor Diers as a plant-breeding researcher, teacher, and former Chair of Soybean Genetics and Breeding at Charles Adlai Ewing Endowed. He noted Professor Diers’ outstanding contribution through the Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL), a USAID-funded project that strengthened soybean research and the soybean industry in Africa.
Drawing from the United States soybean improvement story, Professor Diers illustrated how the country achieved remarkable yield gains over the past century. Despite limited expansion in land area since the 1980s, soybean production has doubled, largely due to private industry investments, good agronomic practices, favorable weather conditions, and genetic improvement breeding, rather than acreage increase. U.S. soybean yields have risen steadily at about 25 to 40 kilograms per hectare per year, demonstrating that sustained investment, strong data management, and attention to breeding fundamentals can drive long-term progress.