Strengthening breeding data management for ICRISAT and partners

To strengthen experimental planning, data management and data analysis skills of ICRISAT cereals and legume breeders, technical staff, research scholars and partners in ESA (Nairobi, Kenya and Debre-Zeit, Ethiopia) a series of training-cum-adoption workshops on the Breeding Management System (BMS) of Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP) was organized.

BMS is a data management tool to help breeders manage their day-to-day activities through all phases of breeding programs.

It is useful for diverse breeding applications including: project planning, germplasm management, germplasm evaluation, molecular analysis, data analysis, and breeding decision support.

Participants were exposed to experimental designs, generation of field maps, selection of parents for crossing, barcode labels, nurseries advancement, templates for handheld devices, streamlining pedigree management, pedigree curation and standardization. Cloud-based solutions were explored and participants appreciated the advantage of having a central database backup and recovery system in the cloud. The use of hand-held devices for data collection from field experiments was very enthusiastically received.

At Nairobi, 10 participants working on sorghum, millet and pigeonpea attended the workshop while at Debre-Zeit a total of 25 participants from different NARS organizations representing chickpea, sorghum, millet and tef breeding attended the workshop, conducted by  a team from ICRISAT led by Dr Abhishek Rathore together with Dr Sarita Pandey, Dr Vikas Singh and Mr Praveen Reddy.