About Us

Roots, Tubers and Banana (RTB) Breeding builds upon capacities in African countries as well as those within CGIAR that were developed through extensive prior BMGF breeding investments such as (Accelerated) Breeding Better Bananas, GT4SP, NextGen Cassava, RTBFoods, SASHA, SweetGAINS, Africa Yam and Excellence in Breeding. Moreover, we will build upon assets, infrastructure and human talent posted at several CGIAR centers and national programs in SSA countries, research, development and extension programs, and advanced research institutions. The three CGIAR centers (CIP, IITA, and CIAT) will work as one team united by a common vision and strong sense of purpose, and the progress achieved through multiple, extensive prior BMGF breeding investments. Furthermore, they have already worked together in the CGIAR Research Program RTB, participated at each other’s annual meetings and other scientific venues such as shared training events.

The current phase, encompassing years 2023 and 2024, is based on the following tenets:

A determined mindset to implementing modernized breeding approaches. As several modernization aspects have already been rolled out, our focus is to progressively streamline and mainstream these breeding approaches.
An explicit focus on optimizing and delivering effective and efficient CGIAR-NARS breeding
A strategic stance in the main countries of implementation, namely, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda, although the expected results and capacities will be extended to other countries and national programs as well.
Encouraging and nudging the transition from a “one crop, one center” mindset towards a shared mindset in which staff will deliver results on specific crops and contribute to other RTB crops as RTB Breeding will foster cross-crop and cross-center collaboration and will serve as one partner to national programs. This addresses not only their relatively small available critical mass, but also creates previously unavailable professional growth opportunities and leveraged expertise across crops at CGIAR centers and national programs.

Awareness that establishing a culture oriented towards results and effective collaborations precedes technological change and not the other way around.

Project Goals

Goal 1 : Description

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Goal 2 : Description

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Goal 3 : Description

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