What to expect from Breeding for Tomorrow

CGIAR launches a new Science Program to develop and deliver climate-resilient, market-preferred, and nutritious products for smallholder farmers worldwide

Nairobi, Kenya – April 8 – As part of its 2025-2030 research portfolio, CGIAR launched Breeding for Tomorrow during its Science Week – a new Science Program designed to tackle one of the greatest challenges of our time: ensuring a global food-secure future in the face of climate change, shifting consumer demands, and persistent undernutrition. 

Building on over 60 years of CGIAR breeding excellence and the achievements of the Genetic Innovation Science Group, Breeding for Tomorrow brings together the force of CGIAR research Centers, national partners, and breeding science to co-develop and deliver a robust portfolio of climate-resilient, market-preferred, and nutritious crop, tree, animal, and aquatic species.  

Speaking at the launch ceremony, Ismahane Elouafi, CGIAR Managing Director, stressed the urgency of delivering high-performing, climate-smart products to smallholder farmers across the globe:  

“Together, we must breed products for a better tomorrow – varieties that thrive in changing climates, meet evolving dietary preferences, and deliver nutritional value to the world’s most vulnerable. CGIAR’s Breeding for Tomorrow will work with partners to deliver exactly that.” 

Why Breeding for Tomorrow is needed now 

In Africa alone, over 100 million people remain food insecure. Conflict, climate volatility, and soaring food prices – affecting over 70% of low-income countries – are placing affordable, healthy diets increasingly out of reach. Meanwhile, many smallholder farmers still rely on decades-old crop varieties, leaving them exposed to emerging pests, extreme weather, and degraded soils. 

“Without access to improved varieties, farmers remain vulnerable and food systems stay fragile,” said Elouafi. “CGIAR breeding is essential. If agricultural productivity growth falls below 1%, hunger and poverty will rise – and food prices will soar.” 

CGIAR’s crop breeding work has the potential not only to sustain current agricultural growth but also to accelerate it. A half percent additional annual increase in productivity could reduce chronic hunger by 29%, cut hidden hunger by 21%, and generate an economic surplus of USD 182 billion over the next decade. 

To achieve this, Breeding for Tomorrow must continue to deliver high-yielding, farmer-demanded crop varieties, faster and with greater real-world impact. The Science Program is also expanding access to transferable capabilities, such as market insights, quantitative genetics, and scalable genomics services, that cut across kingdoms and are within the scope of B4T, to fish and animal breeding. 

Delivering impact through partnerships

Breeding for Tomorrow operates with a long-term, holistic approach, delivering shared value through unified language, goals, data systems and performance metrics. At its core, the program is built on strong partnerships with National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES), private sector actors, universities and local institutions.

“Our partners are the backbone of success,” said Peter Coaldrake, member of the Breeding for Tomorrow Leadership Team. “They connect us to farmers, strengthen national systems, and co-create the innovations we need. CGIAR breeding partnerships alone generate over $40 billion in global economic welfare each year.”

How will success be achieved? 

The Science Program is structured around five interconnected Areas of Work that span the full breeding pipeline: 

At the start of the process, Market Intelligence institutionalizes product design standards to ensure Breeding for Tomorrow’s product targets are in-demand, gender-intentional and impactful, and drive adoption and varietal turnover.  

Accelerated Breeding is where the breeding happens: the Area of Work accelerates the development of new varieties, while steering more efficient, sustainable, and fair breeding processes and collaborations with partners.  

Inclusive Delivery ensures that products generated by CGIAR and its partners reach smallholder farmers through robust, equitable, and scalable dissemination systems.  

Breeding Resources empowers CGIAR-NARES breeding networks by providing a suite of high-quality services, ensuring breeders access technologies, knowledge, and information for greater impact.  

Finally, Enable coordinates a support system and capacity development across functions and product delivery pipelines, for greater efficiency.  

Together, these Areas of Work are breeding for a better tomorrow. 

Resources: 

• More about CGIAR 
• More about CGIAR 2025-2030 Research portfolio 
• More about Breeding for Tomorrow 
• Research article: The economic impact of CGIAR-related crop technologies on agricultural productivity in developing countries, 1961–2020