CGIAR Genebank Platform - Plan of Work and Budget 2020

As per previous years, the CGIAR Genebank Platform is responsible for providing healthy, viable, documented germplasm from the 35 crop and tree collections managed by the CGIAR, which are maintained and safety duplicated in long-term conservation in accordance with the FAO Genebank Standards (2014) and Article 15 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty). This service remains the most important annual output of the 11 CGIAR genebanks, which together are expected to distribute approximately 100,000 samples of germplasm in response to requests from up to 2000 external users and CGIAR scientists in 2020

Capacity Building Workshop on Genetic Resource Policies for CGIAR Scientists and Partners in East Africa, 4 - 7 June 2019, ILRI Campus, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The CGIAR Genebank Platform Policy Module, in coordination with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), organized the ‘Capacity building workshop on genetic resource policies for CGIAR scientists and partners in East Africa’. The workshop was held from 4 - 7 June 2019, at the ILRI campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This event brought together 30 staff members from 6 CGIAR Centres and 10 participants from national agricultural research organizations in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The workshop was designed to increase participants’ understanding of the CGIAR Centres’ and national research organizations’ obligations vis-à-vis international treaties and conventions dealing with access and benefit-sharing, and how these international instruments influence the day-to-day management of the collections. The workshop included participatory analyses of practical case studies and hypothetical scenarios where the interface between the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing and the ITPGRFA (Plant Treaty) can raise legal and procedural issues. It also addressed the management of information associated with genetic resources including digital sequence information

Capacity Building Workshop on Genetic Resources for CGIAR Scientists and Partners from Near East and Neighbouring Countries, 17 - 20 September 2018, ICARDA, Beirut, Lebanon

In September 2018, the CGIAR Genebank Platform Policy Module joined the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East and North Africa (AARINENA) to organize a capacity-building workshop on genetic resource policies for CGIAR scientists and partners from Near East and neighbouring countries. The workshop was held from 17 - 20 September 2018, hosted by ICARDA, Beirut, Lebanon. This event brought together 20 staff members from 6 CGIAR Centres (including genebank managers and technical staff, plant breeders, senior scientists, legal counselor and genetic resources policy specialists), 16 representatives of national agricultural research organizations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen, and representatives of the Secretariats of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the coordination team of the Global Project on Access and Benefit Sharing of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The workshop was designed to increase participants’ understanding of the CGIAR Centres’ obligations vis-à-vis international treaties and conventions dealing with access and benefit-sharing, and how these international instruments influence the day-to-day management of scientists, researchers and support staff involved in the management of plant germplasm collections and plant breeding prorgammes at national and international levels. The workshop included participatory analyses of practical case studies and hypothetical scenarios where the interface between the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing and the ITPGRFA (Plant Treaty) can raise legal and procedural issues. It also addressed improving genebank operations and communications and as such, enhancing availability and accessibility of ex situ collections and promoting farmers’ rights

CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform - Plan of Work and Budget 2020

At the end of 2019, all CGIAR centers had submitted improvement plans based on an EiB template and in close collaboration with EiB staff while – in a parallel process with breeding programs, funders and private sector representatives – a vision for breeding program modernization was developed and presented to CGIAR breeding leadership at the EiB Annual Meeting. This vision represents an evolution of EiB in the context of the Crops to End Hunger Initiative (CtEH) beyond the initial scope of providing tools, services and expert advice, and serves as a guide for Center leadership to drive changes with EiB support. In addition, EiB has taken the role of managing and disbursing funding, made available by Funders via CtEH to modernize breeding and enable CGIAR breeding programs to implement the vision provided by EiB

CGIAR Genebank Platform - Plan of Work and Budget 2021

The most important output of the Genebank Platform is the availability and provision of healthy, viable, documented germplasm from the 35 crop and tree collections managed by the CGIAR, which are maintained, and safety duplicated, in long-term conservation in accordance with FAO Genebank Standards (2014) and Article 15 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty). Demand varies unpredictably between years. Figures for germplasm distributions in 2020 are not yet compiled but they are expected to be lower than for a normal year. We expect that the COVID pandemic and associated lockdown measures will have an impact on the number of requests for germplasm that will continue in 2021. Nevertheless, users continue to request germplasm and all 11 genebanks and germplasm health units (GHUs) continue to import and export germplasm shipments. Although requests are being met, the rate of other genebank operations, including those contributing to performance targets, has slowed down, particularly where lockdown measures are more severe in Asia, Europe and Latin America

CGIAR Centers’ use of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs): a submission to the Advisory Committee on the Global Information System

The Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources (ITPGRFA) requested "information from GLIS users, including CGIAR Centers and other institutions managing crop germplasm repositories, on the current application of DOIs to crop germplasm in the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-Sharing for which DSI/GSD are available in compatible information systems”. This submission to the Scientific Advisory Committee on the Global Information System (SAC-GLIS) includes the responses and examples of current practices from the eleven CGIAR Centers that signed Article 15 agreements with the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA

Philanthropy and the Sustainable Development Goals: Engaging Brazilian Private Social Investment in the Global Development Agenda

The engagement of philanthropy in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is recent. The urgency of greater social impact is one of the points of intersection of the two agendas of work. The report "Philanthropy and the Sustainable Development Goals: Engaging Private Social Investment in the Global Development Agenda" presents a mapping of SDG implementation in Brazil with the support from philanthropy, business and civil society actors

State-space approach to nonlinear predictive generalized minimum variance control

A Nonlinear Predictive Generalized Minimum Variance (NPGMV) control algorithm is introduced for the control of nonlinear discrete-time multivariable systems. The plant model is represented by the combination of a very general nonlinear operator and also a linear subsystem which can be open-loop unstable and is represented in state-space model form. The multi-step predictive control cost index to be minimised involves both weighted error and control signal costing terms. The solution for the control law is derived in the time-domain using a general operator representation of the process. The controller includes an internal model of the nonlinear process but because of the assumed structure of the system the state observer is only required to be linear. In the asymptotic case, where the plant is linear, the controller reduces to a state-space version of the well known GPC controller