Accelerating genetic gain through early-stage on-farm sparse testing

Christian R Werner; Mainassara Zaman-Allah; Teshale Assefa; Jill E Cairns; Gary N Atlin

doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2024.10.010

Accelerating genetic gain through early-stage on-farm sparse testing

Trends Plant Sci. 2024 Nov 8:S1360-1385(24)00278-4. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2024.10.010. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Christian R Werner¹, Mainassara Zaman-Allah², Teshale Assefa³, Jill E Cairns², Gary N Atlin⁴

Affiliations

¹ Accelerated Breeding Initiative (ABI), Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), 56237 Texcoco, Mexico; International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), 56237 Texcoco, Mexico. Electronic address: [email protected].
² International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Harare, Zimbabwe.
³ Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Arusha, Tanzania.
⁴ Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA 98109, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39521690
DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2024.10.010

Abstract

Most African crop breeding programs conduct early-stage selection at very few research stations, which may not reflect smallholder farm conditions. Early-stage on-farm sparse testing utilizes genomic relationships to shift selection from research stations to hundreds of farms in the target population of environments, facilitating increased genetic gain in farmers' fields.