CGIAR leading the charge: How data analytics is transforming crop breeding

Los Baños, Philippines (11 September 2024): In the fast-paced world of crop breeding, timing is everything. Breeders face immense time pressure, particularly during the critical crossing period, where multiple tasks must be handled simultaneously from controlled pollination, environmental management, seed development, harvesting, to analysis. In many cases, with only three to four days to make crucial decisions before moving on to the next cross, breeders often find themselves bogged down by manual calculations. This leaves them with little time to thoroughly evaluate all the factors that could impact their success.

The CGIAR Genetic Innovation teams have developed an advanced breeding analytics pipeline to support crop breeders and their own teams. The tool automates complex calculations, freeing up valuable time and allowing breeders to focus on making informed decisions that drive better outcomes.

Three ways data analytics simplifies the work of breeders Understanding the impact of environment on genotypes

In nature, the genotype of plants and animals is influenced by various environmental interactions and conditions, which could significantly affect breeding efforts by decreasing the genetic signal. Through agronomic management, breeders can manage these factors by adjusting shade levels, improving drainage, increasing water supply, and so on. In addition, experimental design is carried out to dissect the genetic signal through post-harvest statistical analysis when the genetic effects are not easily discernible by sight alone.

One effective way to reduce environmental noise is through analytics, which assesses the location, year, block, incomplete block effects among others and eliminates them. As agriculture becomes increasingly sophisticated, the volume of data collected has grown substantially. With breeding analytics and the power of big data, we can better explain the sources of variation that cause plants to behave in certain ways.

For instance, modern breeding involves collecting…