Global Plant Breeding

Plant Breeding Symposium: Who will train plant breeders?

Michigan State University, March 2005

• Current problems
  • Declining number of public plant breeding programs
  • Declining number of plant breeding students
• How should future plant breeders be trained?
  • U.S. land grant universities (training 6 or more plant breeding graduate students per year)
  • Guest speakers
    • Stephen Baenziger: Public sector
    • Fred Bliss: Private sector
    • Gurdev Khush: International sector
    • Michael Morris: Public vs. private
    • Elcio Guimaraes: Worldwide capacity
    • Paul Gepts: Summary
• Training plant breeders for public sector (Baenziger)
  • Survey: 2206 plant breeders in U.S.
    • 68% private sector, 32% public sector
    • 75% agronomic crops, 25% horticultural crops
    • 60% of effort on cultivar development, 20% on germplasm, 20% on research
  • Plant breeding courses
  • Research methods
    • Fad research: good for grants, bad for cultivar development
    • Quote by H.V. Harlan (1957)
  • Obtaining grant support
  • Winning tenure and promotion
• Training plant breeders for public sector (Bliss)
  • Most private plant breeding jobs in large companies, and in companies with 1-2 breeders
    • Cost: $250,000 to $400,000 / program / year
    • Salary: $40,000 to $135,000 / breeder / year
  • New breeders needed:
    • 2% turnover rate: 30 private, 14 public = 44 total
    • 5% turnover rate: 75 private, 35 public = 110 total
    • Actually training (Guner and Wehner survey): 30 per year
  • Major courses needed:
    • Breeding methods, Qualitative genetics, Quantitative genetics, Plant pathology, Statistics, Project management, Molecular genetics, Plant physiology
  • Other courses needed:
    • Intellectual property rights, Genomics, Proteomics, Cytogenetics, Ethics, Bioinformatics, Mechanization, Computerization
• International Plant Breeding (Khush)
  • Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
  • Initially, CGIAR plant breeders were from: U.S. Japan, Netherlands
  • Now they are mostly from: U.S., India, Philippines
  • CGIAR courses: train 20 breeders / center / year
    • 8% of funds go to internships
• Public vs Private Plant Breeding (Morris)
  • Education is strategic: most universities
  • Training is tactical: U.S. land grant universities, seed companies, International Agricultural Research Centers, National Agricultural Research Centers
  • Funding for plant breeding
    • Public funds: decreasing
    • CGIAR funding: peaked in 1989
    • Private funds: increasing
• World Plant Breeding Capacity (Guimaraes)
  • FAO survey of plant breeding in Africa
    • 7 to 52 breeders / country
    • Most M.S. degree level, some Ph.D. degree level breeders
    • Most do cultivar trials, some do biotechnology research
• Discussion and Conclusions (Participants)
  • Plant breeding training needed by graduate students:
    • Plant breeding courses
    • M.S. and Ph.D. research
      • Field and greenhouse experience
    • Training in teaching methods; extension experience
  • Other plant breeding training needed:
  • Non-degree certificate program
  • Skills update for plant breeders on the job
  • Annual conferences on plant breeding
  • How to handle plant breeding with minor crops
    • Minor crops
      • Grown on small area
      • Specialty crops
      • Subsistence crops (important in developing countries)
  • Usually not covered by CGIAR centers
  • Little profit, so not covered by private companies
  • Most work done by public breeders with public funding
• Summary (Gepts)
  • Public vs. private plant breeders
    • Plant breeding graduate students should have the same training
    • Career paths may involve work in both private and public sector
  • Plant breeding is local; technology is global
    • Biotechnology is a tool, not a goal (see Harlan quote)
  • Future job market: good for private breeders, not for public breeders
  • Needs:
    • More pubic funding
    • More private and public cooperation
    • Freedom to operate, considering increased intellectual property rights
• Future work needed (from this symposium)
  • Plant breeding brochure
  • New funding for plant breeding
    • Grower check-off programs
    • U.S. federal training grants
    • CGIAR center internships
    • Endowments from interested donors
    • U.S. competitive grants for applied agricultural research
  • Plant breeding website (see http://globalplantbreeding.ncsu.edu/)
  • Expand role of private industry (ASTA, NCCPB)
  • Develop a plant breeding association
  • Develop outreach programs to schools, seed savers, the public
  • Publish a proceedings of this meeting