Our Mission
The BPAT is an assessment tool that facilitates a structured review of key technical, capacity and management components of plant breeding programs to facilitate design improvements that increase their efficiency and achieve higher rates of genetic gain. This tool was developed with the support of the Gates Foundation (previously the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
The imperative to accelerate genetic gain
To improve rates of gain delivered to farmers, improvements are needed in:
- Clarity of program objectives and product concepts
- Technical capacity of staff
- Organization of breeding pipelines
- Management, accountability, and incentivization of scientific teams
Improved technical and managerial performance could deliver higher rates of genetic gain, adoption, and varietal turnover in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa in most staple crops. The crop improvement system serving smallholders is lagging both technologically and managerially. International donors and development partners are increasingly committed to helping grantees and partners improve the rates of genetic gain delivered to farmers by their breeding programs.
The Breeding Program Assessment Tool (BPAT) in brief
- The BPAT is a structured evaluation process for breeding programs that assesses their management and organization using criteria commonly used to evaluate commercial plant breeding programs
- It consists of a questionnaire, and an evaluation visit by a team of world class plant breeding experts and management consultants
- A scorecard and report are generated describing program strengths and areas for improvement
- The evaluation can then be used by the breeding program as a basis for developing an improvement plan
- The tool has been used by select donors for evaluating and developing subsequent investments in crop improvement
Target Breeding Programs
CGIAR/NARES institutions that breed the following:
- Sorghum
- Rice
- Maize
- Wheat
- Cowpea
- Chickpea
- Common bean
- Groundnut
- Yam
- Sweet potato
- Cassava
- Banana/ Plantain
- Potato
- Pearl Millet
- Soybean
