May 19, 2014
AGRA funded breeders in Mozambique being trained on using the digital platform
AGRA sponsored plant breeders in Mozambique go digital after a training to instill skills for using the digital platform. All the ten plant breeders under AGRA sponsorship in Mozambique have now been introduced to a digital data management system that will allow them share information with colleagues in other countries on real time basis, become more accurate, efficient, and be able to analyze data more easily.
The Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP), as it is known, is a web-based solution for crop breeders, where registered users can access purpose-built tools to manage their plant breeding projects, obtain support and consulting services, find new knowledge, access training resources and discuss pertinent issues with their peers in various communities of practice.
“All the beneficiaries of this program are different crop breeders who have been trained by AGRA, and they join a family of other breeders in 16 countries all over Africa,” said Jane Ininda, the Program Officer – CROP Improvement under AGRA’s Program for Africa Seed System (PASS).
Until the new platform was introduced to the Mozambique breeders mid May 2014, the scientists have been using a manual system, where they hand-write the information on a piece of paper, then later feed in a computer. The collected information is therefore limited to those who can access the computer in which it has been stored.
“The manual system is more tedious, it is susceptible to mistakes and it cannot easily be updated or shared among peers,” says Constantino E. Cuambe, a cassava breeder at the Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique (IIAM), translated as the Mozambique's Institute of Agricultural Research, which runs under the Ministry of Agriculture in Mozambique.
Cuambe who has ten years experience in plant breeding recalls one day when they planted crops in different sites for research purpose. The crops were then harvested on one day, and data collected for analysis.
“Unluckily, my colleague misplaced the piece of paper where he had written the information before it was fed into the computer, and the unfortunate thing was that all the crop which had been growing with monitoring for one full year had been harvested” he recalls. The incident translated into a loss of the effort that had been put in that particular research for the entire year.
“I’m happy that the new web based system will minimize on those kind of errors, and all researchers on the platform will be able to know what their fellows are doing in other countries in order to avoid re-invention of the wheel,” said Cuambe.
Through the Integrated Breeding Platform, an increasing amount of data is produced every breeding season and there is often little turnaround time to make decisions on what will be selected in the next generation.
The Breeding Management System was conceived to make breeding program management more efficient. It handles both phenotypic and genotypic datasets. It lets users conduct all necessary activities to reach their breeding goals in just one place. It is a one-stop-shop for breeders.
For easy access and real-time data collection, AGRA has bought all the grantees internet enabled laptop computers that are potable and easy to use.
The digital platform was developed by a diverse group of partners, coordinated by the Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The Platform is only accessible only to registered users.
“The world has eventually collapsed into a global village, and we must move with times, if we must remain relevant,” said AGRA’s Ininda. “The more we make breeding easy, the better for the farmers – particularly in the advent of climate change. And that is one of the sure ways of achieving a green revolution in Africa,” she said.
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