Type
Date
Corporate author
Editor
Illustrator
Producer
Photographer
Contributor
Writer
Translator
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Access Rights
APA citation
Das, B., Mutiga, S. K., Odiyo, O., Madahana, S., Milic, D., Sinyinda, L., Mwansa, K., Mukaro, R., Chaingeni, D., Asea, G., Kwemoi, D. B., & Musundire, L. (2025). Costing of the breeding operations for the national maize programs in Eastern and Southern Africa. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2025.1545600
ISO citation
Abstract
Description
The Genetic Innovation Initiative on Accelerated Breeding (ABI) of The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has been supporting the costing of breeding operations for the CGIAR-National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems-Small to Medium Enterprises (CGIAR-NARES-SME's) crop breeding networks. The aim is to help these breeding programs to accurately estimate operational costs, develop precise budgets, set appropriate service fees, and choose the best technologies for increased genetic gains. Breeding programs are being guided in using the University of Queensland's open-source breeding costing tool (UQ-BPCT). This paper outlines the costing strategy and demonstrates the tool's utility using data from national breeding programs in Uganda (NARO), Zambia (ZARI), and Zimbabwe (DR&SS). Results show that the percentage of budgets allocated to germplasm development ranged from 25% (DR&SS) to 52% (NARO), with conventional methods costing 7 to 47 times more than doubled haploids. Costs for trials varied, with ZARI spending 14% and DR&SS spending 51%. In one breeding cycle, NARO released 5 hybrid varieties, ZARI 2, and DR&SS 1. The programs can be optimized by implementing several strategies: adopting an Enterprise Breeding System, incorporating digital technologies for disease screening and phenotyping, network-based procurement of consumables, using modern breeding techniques like doubled haploids, genomic selection, and speed breeding to shorten cycles, and training personnel for more efficient resource use.
Keywords
Citation
Copyright
CIMMYT manages Intellectual Assets as International Public Goods. The user is free to download, print, store and share this work. In case you want to translate or create any other derivative work and share or distribute such translation/derivative work, please contact CIMMYT-Knowledge-Center@cgiar.org indicating the work you want to use and the kind of use you intend; CIMMYT will contact you with the suitable license for that purpose
Journal
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Journal volume
9
Journal issue
Article number
1545600
Place of Publication
Switzerland
Publisher
Frontiers Media
Donor or Funder
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)
National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO)
Zanzibar Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI)
Department of Research and Specialist Services (DR&SS)
National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO)
Zanzibar Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI)
Department of Research and Specialist Services (DR&SS)
Related Datasets
CGIAR
Initiative
Impact Area
Action Area
CGSpace URL
Program or Accelerator
Breeding for Tomorrow