Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building - Business Plan 2009-2013


GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE FOR PLANT BREEDING CAPACITY BUILDING

Harnessing Plant Genetic Resources for Development

Business Plan 2009-2013


This Business Plan is the result of a collaborative and proactive effort started in 2007 when the Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building (GIPB) initiated a stakeholder consultation process to formulate the organizational and implementation framework for the Initiative for the period 2009-2013.

Layout design by Eleonora Diquattro.

Photographs by Elcio Perpétuo Guimarães, Artemio Layno, Yolima Ospina, CIAT,
Maurício António Lopes, © FAO/Giulio Napolitano, Marc-Henri Chatel.

edited in December 2008

ADDRESS AND CONTACT:

Plant Production and Protection Division
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Via delle Terme di Caracalla
00153 - Rome, Italy

http://km.fao.org/gipb/

[email protected]


ABSTRACT

The improvement of crops through plant breeding is one of the most potent tools available for achieving multiple economic and social goals. Since the beginning of crop domestication, genetic change has been the basis for crop improvement, manifested in such traits as larger seed size, better flavour or nutrient content, resistance to pests and diseases, responsiveness to nutrient inputs, adaptation to diverse soil and climatic factors, and many others. This process of modifying the genetic attributes of plants has continued for more than 10 000 years. During all but the past century, this process was solely in the hands of the growers who inadvertently changed gene frequencies through selecting better types and discarding less desirable ones.

Based on studies in several crops, it appears that, broadly speaking, the advances in crop productivity in modern times (since the application of science to crop improvement) are due approximately half to genetics and half to management. There are many remarkable examples of the application of plant breeding to benefi t society. While plant breeding is generally regarded as a methodical, progressive process, there have been periods in history when advances were dramatic and brought rapid, broadly-recognized benefits.

Many developing countries that invested in a comprehensive crop improvement strategy 20 or 30 years ago began to take success for granted, without fully recognizing the consequences of neglecting sustained support, often assuming the private sector would fi ll the gaps. Deteriorating infrastructure, lack of young trained scientists to take over from retiring ones, and poor operating budgets eventually slowed the fl ow of new technology, and the populations in many of these countries are now at greater risk of hunger and the broad-ranging effects of poverty.