Contributions

Gender-responsive plant breeding: This has resulted in inclusion of women in participatory varietal selection (PVS) and gender-disaggregation of trait preferences. Gendered trait preferences reflect gender roles, with women and men giving higher priority to traits that are important for their specific roles in production, processing and marketing⁴⁶. Since gender roles vary by crop and country, so do gendered trait preferences in each breeding program.

Beyond the varieties and hybrids resulting from CGIAR breeding programs, Centers must be assessed by adoption of modern breeding practices for achieving genetic gains. Commitment to achieving continual modernization of crop improvement programs, both within the CGIAR and NARES programs, needs to be at the forefront of GLDC R4D investment. The emphasis should be on empowering of national breeding programs and development of high-functioning, integrated testing networks alongside the NARES and other partners.

Prioritization

The framing brief for GLDC is to address the agri-food systems of critical grain legume and cereal crops grown within the semi-arid and sub-humid dryland agroecologies of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia¹⁴. In accord with this recommendation, a stepped process of prioritization was undertaken to identify the targeted agroecologies, countries, crops and breeding targets that will be the research priorities for GLDC. This prioritization process drew on both available material and explicitly commissioned analyses.