Webinar reveals approaches for breeders to save time and money, cut waste – and deliver for clients

How can breeders and other researcher programs continually improve their processes and products? And how can they ensure they keep a customer focus at the centre of their work?

A recent webinar organized by the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform (EiB) and Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG), invited national agricultural research systems, seed companies, other interested breeders to explore tools, techniques and transitions toward a continuous improvement culture in breeding.

Continuous improvement (CI) is an approach that is being used to modernize breeding programs, to ensure they consistently get significantly improved varieties in farmers’ fields. It helps teams create a new way of thinking and working. The goal is to ensure striving for excellence becomes part of an organizational culture. To get there, it provides and a set of clear principles and tools to help diagnose problems and then solve them.

The webinar featured a leading international CI expert – Theresa Heitman, a consultant working with EiB partners – who introduced the Lean Improvement Methodology, an approach to help breeders grow their programs and improve results without adding more resources. It examines the way breeders create value for the customer, using specific methods and tools to reduce or eliminate non-value-added activities.