who will train plant breeders?
March 9-11, 2005
The Henry Center for Executive Development
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48823
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Plant Breeding and the Public Sector: who will train plant breeders? March 9-11, 2005
The Henry Center for Executive Development |
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Plant Breeding and Genetics Group, Michigan State University There has been increasing worry globally about who will train plant breeders in the future. To date, much of the training has been provided in North American Universities, but the number of public breeders is steadily declining. This situation was dramatically portrayed in a recent news feature in the journal Nature entitled “A dying breed.” The reason for the decline in plant breeding programs is complex, but revolves around two primary factors. First, as plant breeders retire, they are being replaced by scientists involved in more basic genetic studies. This shift is fueled by the perception that private sector breeding efforts are adequate to meet cultivar needs. Second, cuts in University resources have led to reduced support of Extension field programs, and this has pushed the current crop of public plant breeders to shift their activities towards fundamental/basic studies that can be supported by federal grants and private sector. The loss of plant breeding programs is of great concern to both our domestic plant breeding industry and the international community. A substantial proportion of the plant breeders in developing nations were trained at U.S. Universities, and almost all the private North American breeders attended Land Grant Universities. The bottom line is that we must find a way to keep a critical mass of applied geneticists and plant breeders at public institutions in the U.S. and around the world, if we are to maintain our training programs in plant breeding. What is needed is a partnership among the International Programs, Land Grant Universities, and private companies that will support our plant breeding training programs. We hosted a symposium at MSU that discussed this critical issue and initiated some positive steps to address it. Members of the entire plant breeding community were represented, including private breeding programs, major commodity groups, international training centers and University breeders. There were five invited talks: Dr. P. Stephen Baenziger (Eugene W. Price Distinguished Professor, University of Nebraska) - Plant Breeding Training in North America Dr. Fred Bliss (Senior Director, R & D Special Projects, Seminis Seeds and former Will W. Lester Endowed Chair at The University of California) - Plant Breeding in the Private Sector of North America Dr.Gurdev Khush (Former Head of Plant Breeding at IRRI and World Food Prize 1996) - Plant Breeding Training in the International Sector Dr. Michael Morris (Senior Economist at World Bank and former Director of Economics Program of CIMMYT) - Building Capacity for International Plant Breeding: What Roles for the Public and Private Sectors? Dr. Elcio Guimaraes (Senior Officer Cereal/Crop Breeding, FAO) - Assessment of National Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Capacity Worldwide We came together on the evening of March 9 for an informal reception. The next day our thinking was focused by the addresses of keynote speakers and then we formed breakout groups to discuss three topics.
On the third day, the breakout groups reported to all the attendees on their recommendations, followed by open discussion. The presentations and lectures can be found at the above links. The organizers are now in the process of collating the reports and producing a manuscript for publication.
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