For five days, from 14 – 18 September, IITA–CGIAR hosted Makram Geha, Director of the CGIAR Breeding for Tomorrow (B4T) Science Program, for an intensive engagement focused on one central question: how can breeding science deliver greater and faster impact for farmers and consumers at large?
The visit provided an opportunity for Geha to review close to six decades of breeding achievements at IITA–CGIAR, assess current challenges and opportunities, and explore pathways for accelerating the delivery of improved varieties and technologies to farmers across Africa.
Covering its six mandate crops—cassava, yam, banana and plantain, maize, soybean, and cowpea, the program brought together IITA breeding leads, scientists, partners, and stakeholders for presentations, discussions, and field and laboratory visits. Together, they examined breeding gains, product pipelines, released varieties, seed systems, modern breeding tools, infrastructure, partnerships, and the pathways required to move improved products from research outputs into farmers’ fields.
Welcoming Geha, IITA Head of Breeding, Dr Hapson Mushoriwa, highlighted IITA–CGIAR’s breeding vision to deliver higher productivity to farmers while reducing production risks through improved varieties and technologies. He noted that the institute’s breeding strategy is built around six strategic pillars: customer-centric solutions, product leadership, operational excellence, strategic partnerships, seed scaling, and strong organizational leadership. At the heart of this strategy are three interconnected elements: people, processes, and products.
The scale of IITA’s breeding contribution is also significant. The institute has released hundreds of varieties across its mandate crops, targeting diverse agroecologies, markets, and farmer needs. Historical examples presented during the engagement showed how breeding investments can translate into broad development outcomes. Improved cassava varieties, for instance, have contributed to food security and economic gains, while improved maize varieties have been adopted across hundreds of thousands of hectares.
These efforts are increasingly supported by modern breeding tools that are transforming the speed and efficiency of crop improvement, shortening breeding cycles and improving the ability to identify promising materials. In yams, for example, the integration of genomic prediction, performance testing, optimal contribution selection, and other approaches has reduced the breeding cycle from the traditional 8-12 years to about 3 years.
Presenting the progress of the Yam Improvement Program, the Lead Breeder, Dr Asrat Amele, highlighted that IITA–CGIAR is transforming yam breeding through accelerated breeding approaches, advanced genomics, and emerging gene-editing technologies, which are helping to reduce breeding cycles and unlock traits that were previously difficult to improve. The program is pursuing next-generation yam varieties with enhanced disease resistance, improved flowering and fruiting efficiency, higher yields, superior tuber qualities, and greater suitability for mechanization and processing.
Dr Ismail Rabbi, IITA’s Cassava Improvement Program Lead, highlighted that IITA–CGIAR’s cassava breeding is leveraging region-specific pipelines and strong partnerships to address major diseases while improving productivity, nutrition, and processing qualities. IITA has successfully developed and deployed a resistant variety to Cassava Mosaic Disease—an achievement now benefiting countries in Asia facing disease outbreaks. He explained that separate breeding pipelines have been established across regions to address differing agroecological conditions and major threats such as Cassava Brown Streak Disease. Dr Rabbi also outlined the program’s market-driven approach, targeting cassava varieties for fresh consumption, processing, industry, and biofortification, while prioritizing higher yields, improved dry matter and starch content, disease resistance, and better root quality.
Dr Moses Nyine, IITA Plantain Breeder, highlighted that IITA–CGIAR’s banana and plantain breeding program is integrating advanced technologies, including AI-assisted screening, while drawing on one of the world’s largest germplasm collections to unlock the potential of plantain as Nigeria’s “green gold.” Dr Nyine emphasized the need to explore advanced breeding questions, including the possibility of breeding at the diploid level and improving genetic gains through innovative reproductive approaches. Discussions emphasized the need for stronger private-sector engagement and policy recognition to elevate plantain as a national priority crop.
Maize Improvement Program Lead, Prof. John Derera, presented the achievements and strategic direction of IITA–CGIAR’s Maize Improvement Program, which serves more than 500 million people across West and Central Africa through breeding pipelines targeting diverse agroecologies and market segments. IITA–CGIAR’s maize breeding has delivered more than 223 varieties over the last 23 years. It employs genomic selection, doubled-haploid technology, and digital tools to develop climate-resilient hybrids with improved productivity and nutritional value. He highlighted the program’s focus on developing high-performing hybrid maize varieties with at least a 25% yield advantage over existing varieties, along with traits such as tolerance to drought, heat, Striga, and fall armyworm, improved nutritional quality, and reduced aflatoxin contamination.
IITA Soybean Breeder, Dr Godfree Chigeza, outlined growing market demand for non-GMO soybeans and described extensive testing activities involving hundreds of breeding lines across multiple environments. The program is increasingly using genomic prediction tools and advanced data analysis to accelerate selection and improve breeding efficiency.
Cowpea discussions, led by Dr Ousmane Boukar, IITA Cowpea Improvement Program Lead, highlighted progress in scaling improved varieties through strong collaborations among researchers, regulators, and seed companies. Together with maize, it is one of the crops for which bioengineered varieties are already reaching farmers through commercial channels, underscoring the importance of strong partnerships among researchers, regulators, and seed companies.
However, the discussions did not focus only on achievements. The visit also examined what is needed to sustain and accelerate progress. For Geha, the next phase requires bringing the different pieces together more deliberately. “The elements of success are available,” he said. “The task ahead is to connect those elements into systems that allow breeding programs to make better decisions, track progress, and deliver products more efficiently,” he continued. His reflections emphasized integration, efficiency, discovery, systems thinking, and the need to effectively exploit the entire pathway from the selection of genetic resources to products reaching farmers.
The engagement also highlighted the importance of thinking beyond individual varieties. A successful breeding product must connect with agronomy, seed systems, markets, policy, and farmer preferences. This is particularly important as IITA looks toward breeding for tomorrow’s challenges. Climate change, emerging diseases, changing consumer preferences, nutrition, labor availability, and evolving markets are already shaping what farmers will need in the future.
The five-day engagement, therefore, served not simply as a review of what IITA has achieved but as a strategic conversation about what comes next: combining genetic and agronomic gains, strengthening partnerships, modernizing breeding systems, and ensuring that the science ultimately translates into meaningful choices and benefits for farmers.
Contributed by
Safira Chirindza