Chapter 7. Achieving genetic gains in practice

Accelerating the rate of genetic gain for grain yield together with key traits is pivotal for delivering improved wheat varieties. The key strategies of CIMMYT’s spring bread wheat improvement program to continuously increase genetic gains and deliver elite wheat lines to national partners in the target countries include: breeding for product profiles that prioritize selection traits; robust choice of diverse parents by leveraging all phenotypic and genotypic data; effective crossing schemes with an optimal proportion of different types of crosses; early-generation advancement using the selected-bulk breeding scheme that reduces operational costs; the two generations/year field based “shuttle-breeding” that reduces the breeding cycle time while selecting breeding populations in contrasting environments with diverse biotic and abiotic stresses; making advancement decisions for elite lines using data from intensive multi-trait, multi-year and multi-environment phenotyping; integrating new methods like genomic selection; utilizing yield and phenotypic data from international yield trials and screening nurseries generated by worldwide partners for identifying and utilizing superior lines; and maintaining effective partnerships with the National Agricultural Research Systems who serve as key leaders in developing, releasing, and disseminating varieties to farmers. In addition to these strategies, new breeding schemes to reduce the cycle time and recycle parents in 2–3 years are being piloted and optimized to further accelerate genetic gain.