TL III_GG_PIP_BPAT_IITA_Cowpea_WCA

1. www.iita.orgA member of CGIAR consortium
IITA BPAT HIGLIGHT – COWPEA
BREEDING PROGRAM
IITA Cowpea Breeding Unit

2. www.iita.orgA member of CGIAR consortium
Introduction
• IITA was part of a pilot program to test the BPAT (version 2.0)
• Joint project supported by McKinsey & Company and the
Context Network
• Assessment involved cowpea and cassava programs
• Pre-visit to discuss the objectives, the assessment tool and
distribute the questionnaire (93 questions)
• Visit for the evaluation: each question received a score between
one and four based on the assessors’ perceptions
• Results were sent to IITA and BMGF Managements that have
reviewed the results

3. www.iita.orgA member of CGIAR consortium

4. www.iita.orgA member of CGIAR consortium
Based on the assessment carried out by the team the
following observations and recommendations were
made:-

5. www.iita.orgA member of CGIAR consortium
Breeding Organization
• Well-educated and trained group of scientists and
individuals with significant experience and strong
capabilities.
• Understand and utilize current “best practices”
• Multidisciplinary team
• Recruitment of biometrician
• Recruitment of HPR entomologist

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Infrastructure
• Adequate facilities relative to NARES partners
• Good power facilities to protect from power outages
• Screenhouses and irrigation systems need updating
• Mechanization (harvesting and seed processing)
• Specific capital equipment replacement plan

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Breeding Methodology
• Impressive knowledge of germplasm and market needs
• Good understanding of the breeding objectives
• Good program design
• Need of advanced statistical information (BLUP,
repeatability)
• Increase the size of the program: the number of lines
under prelim. evaluation to at least 20,000
• Enhancing phenotyping for QTL validation

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Cultivar devpt, release & pro.
• Good collaboration with NARS in developing and
releasing varieties
• Improved agronomic practices to realize current yield
potential
• Limited post-release product performance information
• Formalize more feedback to the breeders through
annual review of post-release performance

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Program impact
• Best cultivar candidates are >5% better than the best
competitive cultivar for highest value traits and >=
competitive cultivar for secondary traits.
• Need to measure impact on a regular basis (if fund is
available)

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Strategic planning & Mgt
• IITA refreshed 2012-2020 organization-wide strategy in
place
• Critical role in supporting NARES sharing best practices,
training, collaborating on projects…
• Develop and communicate IITA-specific strategic plan
linking research activities against milestones to drive
new variety releases
• Ensure adequate manpower/capacity to develop this
crop strategy and drive its implementation

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Budget and finance
• Implementation of full cost-recovery model
• Understand need to utilize activity-based costing
• Need for basic infrastructure (water irrigation, labs,
screenhouses…)

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Performance management
• Implementation of good annual review process based
on progress on agreed-upon set of objectives and
milestones developed annually.
• 3-year contract review process
• Introduce team-based reviews and incentives to
reinforce collaborative behaviors and achievement of
shared milestones within a crop program

13. www.iita.orgA member of CGIAR consortium
Comments by IITA
• Overall the exercise is useful to IITA
• Increase the size of the program (day length and
photosensitivity…)
• Pre-breeding does exist in IITA cowpea breeding
program
• A capital equipment replacement plan exists
• Senior entomologist exists (biological control)

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THANK YOU