U.S. Government Funding for Prebreeding: Role of the Private Sector. Nora Lapitan and Jennifer Long US Agency for International Development

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1 U.S. Government Funding for Prebreeding: Insights, Forecast and the Role of the Private Sector Nora Lapitan and Jennifer Long US Agency for International Development

2 Outline How US Federal funding agencies are organized by mandate Track record of US government funding agencies for pre breeding Examples of USAID funded projects on prebreeding with PPP Forecast of government funding for prebreeding

3 Funding Agency Types of Research Funded Recipients National Science Foundation USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture USDA ARS Fundamental research in non medical fields of science and engineering US institutions Research and Education to address agricultural challenges in the USA USDA's in house research agency US institutions USDA ARS US Agency for International Development (USAID) Research, Education, Extension, & Policy to end extreme poverty and hunger in developing countries US Universities, CGIAR, NARS, USDA ARS, Private sector

4 NSF USDA Translation USAID Basic Applied Utility

5 Investments for long term and near term impact Longer Term Investments Near Term Impact Longer term Research Major Themes 1. Heat and drought tolerant, climate adapted cereals 2. Advanced technology solutions for animal and plant diseases 3. Legume productivity for improved nutrition and incomes Application of Advanced Research for Productivity and Resilience Policy, social science and nutrition research (e.g. utilization of food) Increased availability and access to high quality foods for improved diets (animal sourced food, horticulture, aflatoxin control) Sustainable Intensification of Key Production Systems Complement Mission investments in select value chains Integrate component technologies, policies, social sciences, nutrition South Asia Indo Gangetic Plains Maize mixed East & Southern Africa Sudano Sahelian West Africa Ethiopian Highlands Bangladesh Tanzania Ghana Ethiopia

6 Germplasm Screening (Genotype Phenotype) Genetic Base Broadening Breeding Value Estimate Pre Breeding Tool & Resource Development Population Development The Breeding Cycle Crossing Evaluation Selection

7 Track Record of US Funding Agency Investments in Pre breeding NSF Genome sequencing projects Tool Development projects (GBS Platform, high throughput phenotyping platforms, annotation programs) Genome databases and iplant (web portal that puts computational tools in the hands of researchers) USDA Application of genomic tools in plants and animals important to US agriculture (Triticeae CAP project: Development of SNPs, screening of large populations) USAID Prebreeding is integrated in projects aiming to develop improved varieties that address significant challenges in smallholder farming in target agro ecologies.

8 USAID Agriculture, Research, and Policy Investments in breeding projects;13 of which have prebreeding components; $23.5 Million $62.5 Million to 7 commodity CRPs (Maize, Wheat, Dryland Cereals, Rice, Legumes, RTB, Fish); includes research, policy, and scaling $125.4 Million to CGIAR funded by USAID Missions

9 Pre breeding is a component of projects aimed at breeding for climate resilience. Climate change is one of the greatest challenges to increasing cereal productivity. Projected declines in yields per 1C increase in temperature is 3 4% for wheat and 7% for maize. Breeding for climate resilience involves many traits that are controlled by multiple genes that are highly affected by the environment.

10 Pre breeding can transform breeding for climate resilience by: Accelerating the breeding cycle. Identifying novel sources of genes conferring heat tolerance. Increasing the precision of transferring genomic regions that confer heat tolerance into adapted cultivars. Predicting gene combinations that will provide tolerance and high yield in stressful environments.

11 Heat Tolerant Maize for South Asia Goal: Develop heat tolerant, high yielding maize hybrids with potential impact to the maize dependent and climate change vulnerable regions of S. Asia. CIMMYT Purdue Pioneer Medium sized NARS Hi Bred companies Roles Elite germplasm Technical Technical Seed Production Field Testing Technical expertise : expertise Seed develop & sites Expertise metabolo Seed pro ment & mics; duction, deployment prebreeding development & deployment Benefits CGIAR mission Publications First right to First right to First right to Grants heat tolerant heat tolerant heat hybrids hybrids tolerant hybrids

12 International Wheat Yield Partnership Goal: To increase wheat yield potential by up to 50% in 20 years DONORS: PUBLIC: PRIVATE: USAID BBSRC DFID USDA NIFA CIMMYT ACIAR GRDC USDA ARS EMBRAPA INRA Syngenta Foundation Syngenta Bayer Crop Sciences Limagrain DOW APPROACH: Exploit the best relevant science base worldwide 1 st CALL: iwyp.org Incorporate and evaluate in elite germplasm Transfer germplasm to leading relevant breeding programs around the world, public and private

13 Forecast Prebreeding will become an important part of major plant breeding programs. Increased need for funding of prebreeding activities. Donors will continue funding according to their mandate or mission. NSF: will fill gaps in tools needed by the scientific community USAID: expect pre breeding to be part of CRPs, outcomesdriven. Training the next generation of breeders in genomics and bioinformatics will be an important area of investment for funding agencies.