Annex I: National Plant Breeding Survey

The objective of this survey is to develop a plant breeding country profile to provide decision makers with the means to strengthen national programme capacity to respond to needs and priorities on sustainable use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA). The information provided will be managed as confidential; under no circumstance will information about individual breeding programmes be disclosed. Only country average will be presented and discussed in published reports

This survey intent to cover the period 1985-2004 using mainly five-year interval data, but if information is available for every single year or only for years different than the ones indicated, it should be included.

1) What kind of organization are you representing?

¨ Public sector (research institution)
¨ Public sector (university)
¨ Private company
¨ Other (explain)____________________________

2) How many years has your organization been involved in

Plant breeding ________ years
Plant biotechnology ________ years

If there was change in name or structure of the organization, please consider the full period length.

3) Number and educational level of scientists of your organization involved in plant breeding and biotechnology in the period 1985 to 2004. This information should be reported in Full Time Equivalent (FTE) to allow capturing the activities of scientists who work only part-time in plant breeding and/or biotechnology (see the definition of FTE in the definitions section). If there are plant breeders or biotechnologists working in administrative positions they must be included in the table.

Plant breeding

Education level	1985	1990	1995	2000	2004
B.Sc.
M.Sc.
Ph.D.

Obs: this information may be completed on crop and/or crops-group basis by replicating the table.

Plant biotechnology

Education level	1985	1990	1995	2000	2004
B.Sc.
M.Sc.
Ph.D.

4) Please indicate your organization’s total budget and the proportion that was allocated to plant breeding activities in the period 1985 to 2004 (please use current local currency, do not transform to US$ or any other currency). Please indicate if the budget includes salaries. If there is no data for the specified years, but they are available for other years, please include the information and specify the year it refers to.

Financial resources	1985	1990	1995	2000	2004
Total research budget
Plant breeding
%¹
¹ In cases where there is no breakdown by activities, use the percentage line to provide an idea of the allocation for plant breeding.

5) Considering the total organization’s resource allocation (human and financial) for plant breeding activities what would be the percentage distribution by crops and/or crops-group? Each column should sum to 100%.

Crops	1985	1990	1995	2000	2004
Wheat
Rice
Maize
Sorghum and Millet
Others small grains (e.g. Barley and Oats)
Oilseeds (e.g. Soybeans, Groundnuts)
Fiber crops (e.g. Cotton)
Roots and Tubers
Forages
Others grain legumes (e.g. Chickpea, Cowpea, Phaseolus)
Vegetables and Fruits
Miscellaneous
Total	100	100	100	100	100

6) Taking into account the total organization’s resource allocation (human and financial) for different crops and/or crops-group improvement activities. What would be the present percentage allocation considering the current base-year. Please, also indicate what the trend is over the previous decade for the three major areas proposed (assign number 1 if it is increasing, 2 if it remains the same and 3 if it is decreasing since 1990). To help with your answer we are providing the following example: in the 1990’s the programme invested 10% of its total resources to “germplasm enhancement”, 30% to “line development” and 60% to “line evaluation”. In 2004 the investments were 10% of its resources to “germplasm enhancement”, 50% to “line development” and 40% to “line evaluation”. Therefore, the number indicating the trends are 2 for “germplasm enhancement”, 1 for “line development” and 3 for “line evaluation”. If there is an increase in one area there must be a decrease in another. It is important to understand that the amount of resources in 2004 may have increased or decreased in relation to the 1990’s, but that does not influence the trends; the programme may have less resources in 2004, but out of the available resources a greater percentage will go to “line development”.

Crops	Allocation						% must add to
	Germplasm enhancement¹		Line development¹		Line evaluation¹
	%	Trend	%	Trend	%	Trend
Wheat							100
Rice							100
Maize						/td>	100
Sorghum and Millet							100
Others small grains (e.g. Barley and Oats)							100
Oilseeds (e.g. Soybeans, Groundnuts)							100
Fiber crops (e.g. Cotton)							100
Roots and Tubers							100
Forages							100
Others grain legumes (e.g. Chickpea, Cowpea, Phaseolus)							100
Vegetables and Fruits							100
Miscellaneous							100
¹ See the definitions in the appropriate section.

7) Considering the total resources available in the organization, what is the proportion (%) going to the different research areas? Each column should sum to 100%.

Research Area	1985	1990	1995	2000	2004
Line development¹ and evaluation ¹
Plant biotechnology¹
Germplasm enhancement¹
Total allocation (%)	100	100	100	100	100
¹ See the definitions in the appropriate section.

8) Please, mark which are the biotechnology areas the organization is working on?

¨ Molecular characterization
¨ Tissue culture
¨ Double haploid breeding
¨ Marker assisted selection
¨ Genetic engineering
¨ Gene isolation
¨ Wild crosses
¨ Other (specify) ___________________________________________

9) Considering the organization’s breeding programme, write the average numbers managed for every crop and/or crop-group. Consider 2004 as the present base-year to provide this information.

Crops	Activity
Crops	Number of crosses made¹	Number of segregating populations considering all generations²	Number of trials³	Number of locations used for field trials
Wheat
Rice
Maize
Sorghum and Millet
Others small grains (e.g. Barley and Oats)
Oilseeds (e.g. Soybeans, Groundnuts)
Fiber crops (e.g. Cotton)
Roots and Tubers
Forages
Others grain legumes (e.g. Chickpea, Cowpea, Phaseolus)
Vegetables and Fruits
Miscellaneous
¹ In self-pollinated crops the number of crosses refers to the number of parental combinations made and not to the number of crosses made to insure parent A by B combination. ² Please consider that a single cross may produce 100 F₃ segregating populations, 300 F₄, and so on. The question is asking for the total number regardless of their segregating cycle. ³ Please provide the sum of all trials the programme carries out, including segregating materials, observational and yield trials, as well as demonstration trials.

10) For each major crop and/or crop-group, what are the main sources of germplasm used in the breeding programme of your organization? Consider 2004 as the base-year to provide this crop information. Please indicate the percentage obtained from each source. Each row should sum to 100%.

Crops	Germplasm source
Crops	Local germplasm bank¹	National germplasm bank	Introduction through bi or multilateral agreements	Introduction through participation in germplasm evaluation networks	CGIAR gene banks	Public organizations in industrialized country	Private sector	Farmers material	Total
Wheat									100
Rice									100
Maize									100
Sorghum and Millet									100
Others small grains (e.g. Barley and Oats)									100
Oilseeds (e.g. Soybeans, Groundnuts)									100
Fiber crops (e.g. Cotton)									100
Roots and Tubers									100
Forages									100
Others grain legumes (e.g. Chickpea, Cowpea, Phaseolus)									100
Vegetables and Fruits									100
Miscellaneous									100
¹ This column is only to be completed by institutions which have local gene banks, in addition to the national one.

11) For the following crops and/or crops-group indicate the environment breeding priority for your organization during the 1980’s (or more recently in case your Organization did not exist at that time) and today (1 = high priority; 2 = medium priority, 3 = low priority).

Crop	Targeted environment	Priority
Crop	Targeted environment	1980	2004
Wheat	Highly favourable
	With abiotic¹ stress
	With biotic² stress
Rice	Highly favourable
	With abiotic stress
	With biotic stress
Maize	Highly favourable
	With abiotic stress
	With biotic stress
Sorghum and Millet	Highly favourable
	With abiotic stress
	With biotic stress
Others small grains (e.g. Barley and Oats)	Highly favourable
	With abiotic stress
	With biotic stress
Oilseeds (e.g. Soybeans, Groundnuts)	Highly favourable
	With abiotic stress
	With biotic stress
Fiber crops (e.g. Cotton)	Highly favourable
	With abiotic stress
	With biotic stress
Roots and Tubers	Highly favourable
	With abiotic stress
	With biotic stress
Forages	Highly favourable
	With abiotic stress
	With biotic stress
Others grain legumes (e.g. Chickpea, Cowpea, Phaseolus)	Highly favourable
	With abiotic stress
	With biotic stress
Vegetables and Fruits	Highly favourable
	With abiotic stress
	With biotic stress
Miscellaneous	Highly favourable
	With abiotic stress
	With biotic stress
¹ Abiotic stress – drought, heat, cold, etc ² Biotic stress – diseases, insects, etc

12) How can the international community (FAO, CGIAR Centers, World Bank, IFAD, multilateral or bilateral development agencies, etc) assist your organization in increasing efficient use of PGRFA? Please rate them using the following numbers: 1 = high, 2 = medium high, 3 = medium, 4 = medium low, 5 = low priority. Do not repeat the number and leave blank where priority is lower than 5.

¨ Promoting training programmes on biotechnological tools
¨ Promoting training programmes on conventional breeding methods
¨ Helping preparing projects for funding
¨ Facilitating germplasm exchange
¨ Facilitating access to new biotechnological tools
¨ Strengthening national programme capacity through investments
¨ Other (specify) _______________________________________________

13) Indicate the number of varieties released each period by your organization for each crop and/or crop-group.

Crop	Number of varieties released¹
Crop	1980- 1984	1985-1989	1990-1994	1995-1999	2000-2004
Wheat
Rice
Maize
Sorghum and Millet
Others small grains (e.g. Barley and Oats)
Oilseeds (e.g. Soybeans, Groundnuts)
Fiber crops (e.g. Cotton)
Roots and Tubers
Forages
Others grain legumes (e.g. Chickpea, Cowpea, Phaseolus)
Vegetables and Fruits
Miscellaneous
¹ If the country does not have a varietal release system in place, provide the number of varieties made available to farmers.

14) Indicate the aspects the Organization considers the most limiting for the success of the plant breeding programmes. In the first column identify the ones that are current relevant and in the second column indicate the ones important in the 1980s. Please, only write the main five and put them in order of importance, given the number “1” to the most important and “5” to the least important. Do not repeat the number and leave blank where priority is lower than 5.

Aspects	Actual	1980s
Inadequate number of breeders for each crop
Inadequate experimental fields conditions
Inadequate access to recent literature
Inadequate knowledge level of the general plant breeding strategies
Limited access to international genetic resources
Limited access to national public and/or private genetic resources
Lack of knowledge about participatory plant breeding techniques
Lack of knowledge about the use of molecular technique support plant breeding programmes
Inadequate availability of laboratory infrastructure to carry out experiments using advanced plant breeding techniques
Lack of financial resources to carry out field and laboratory experiments
Lack of support from the international community, including organizations like Centres of the CGIAR system, FAO, etc
Others (specify)

Definitions

Biotechnology – means any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or process for specific use (Convention on Biological Diversity, June 1992). It includes different molecular technologies such as gene manipulation and gene transfer. For this exercise tissue culture also is included.

Plant Breeding – research that includes any activities related to the application of plant breeding methodologies, going from germplasm enhancement (pre-breeding) to line development and evaluation.

Full Time Equivalent (FTE) – is the work done by a person who has any responsibility linked to plant breeding (genetic enhancement, line development, line evaluation or genetic studies) during one year (365 days). This information should not include support personal (technicians, laboratory and field workers, students, etc).

Public sector – any organization (national and state research organizations, universities, special funded programmes, etc) that relays on public resources to carry on their regular breeding activities.

Private sector – any organization that uses only private resources to carry on their regulars breeding activities.

Scientist – only include personal who are directly involved in plant breeding, including scientists responsible for varietal trials of introduced materials such as those from CGIAR centers, do not include other areas of expertise, field labor or technicians.

Germplasm enhancement – Any activity that includes: a) gene transfer via sexual or asexual means from germplasm accessions; b) increasing the frequencies of desirable genes in crop pools that will be used for developing parents or cultivars (Frey, 1996); and c) germplasm characterization.

Line development – Any activity of crossing and selection that has the direct purpose of developing or releasing varieties.

Line evaluation – Any activity of evaluating advanced breeding lines or introduced varieties with the direct purpose of releasing varieties, including on-station and on-farm evaluation.