CGIAR Consortium attains International Organisation Status

It's official! The CGIAR Consortium has today attained International Organisation Status, after officials put pen to paper in Paris, France, today, 2nd March 2012. Mr Carlos Perez del Castillo, the CGIAR Consortium Board Chair, said, “Achieving International Organization status and recognition is a major step towards enabling the reformed CGIAR...

March 2, 2012 8:52am

Syngenta, CIMMYT and GCP: exact combination unlocks the vault of genomic resources for key crop, maize

GCP is pleased to announce that it has received a major donation of transgenic-free maize genetic resources from Syngenta's allelic diversity platform. This donation constitutes a unique tool to improve maize globally, which will now be available to researchers worldwide. Read more in the full press release....

February 29, 2012 8:56am

DNA sequencing: The Next Generation

  To boldly go...where few scientists have gone before... Intrepid genomics trekkers, Rajeev K Varshney and Gregory D May, take us on a voyage into the universe of plant genomics and next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) technologies with a Special Issue of Briefings in Functional Genomics journal entitled ‘Next-generation sequencing technologies:...

February 21, 2012 8:58am

2010 Annual Report and Medium-Term Plan 2011-2013 hard copies now available

The GCP 2010 Annual Report and Medium-Term Plan 2011-2013 are now available in hard copy. If you wish to receive a copy of these publications by post, please request one from Communications Assistant Gillian Summers, indicating your full name and mailing address. Electronic PDF version and E-publication are also online:...

January 31, 2012 3:13pm

New shoots of a green revolution in Africa: Disease-resistant cassava varieties put down roots in Tanzania

  Cassava leaves In mid-November 2011, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a press statement expressing alarm at the spread of the cassava brown streak disease in the East Africa Region, saying it is on the verge of becoming an epidemic with grave implications for food security and...

January 31, 2012 3:06pm

An orphan crop comes home: how the mighty, meaty pigeonpea genome was decoded

31 Jan 2012 A six-year, multi-institute collaborative project has successfully sequenced the pigeonpea genome. This result opens the floodgates for developing new varieties of the legume, which in turn will have a significant impact on the lives of people in resource-poor communities in the semi-arid regions. The initiative was led...

January 31, 2012 9:17am

GCP flaunts a nice turn of phrase with new tagline

Towards the end of last year, a small group at GCP knocked heads (and a few knuckles too!) and locked lexicons to come up with a new tagline that better reflects what and where GCP is today. From a long list of suggestions, the following winner was selected: Partnerships...

January 31, 2012 9:15am

2011 GRM materials now online

For five days in September 2011, GCP researchers from around the globe joined forces on Indian soil for GCP's General Research Meeting held in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Materials from the event, including presentations, posters and photographs, are now available online. The 2011 GCP General Research Meeting (GRM), which took...

January 31, 2012 9:13am

Plus two integrated into the IBP team

  In the course of 2011, two more members became an integral part of the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP) team. Firstly we have Clarissa 'Candy' Pimentel, based at GCP Headquarters in Mexico, who is our Data Manager/Training Specialist. She has specific responsibility for the Central Crop databases accesible via...

January 31, 2012 9:08am

Take part in mapping the 'after-GCP' future by completing comprehensive survey

  GCP is pleased to invite visitors to our website to take part in the 'Mapping the future' survey, which seeks your input in helping to more clearly determine the core nature, primary purpose and operational priorities of a possible successor entity for GCP. GCP is now entering its closing...

January 27, 2012 8:36pm

Download the low-down on plant phenotyping: GCP's long-awaited popular publication now available online

Like rest to a tired traveller, or a refreshing breeze after a long day under the sun, our proverbial 'pot of gold' publication will be savoured much more by all those who have been patiently waiting for a taste of this tome. Drought phenotyping in crops: from theory to practice...

November 7, 2011 6:00pm

GCP catapults CoPs into creation for a crescendo of capacity construction

The first half of 2011 marked a season of community goings-on at GCP, as a series of comprehensive discussions on the formation, expansion and management of communities of practice (CoPs) were succeeded by the successful launch of several crop-specific CoPs. Read more  ...

November 3, 2011 6:00pm

Big boost for bean breeding

The Bean Coordinated Agricultural Project (BeanCAP) is pleased to announce the release - into the public domain - of the first instalment of resources to boost molecular breeding in common beans. BeanCAP is releasing to GCP information on more than 1,575 bean SNPs that will broaden the genetic tools...

October 14, 2011 6:00pm

UMUCASS33: the new bug-busting, high-harvesting, taste-tingling cassava variety now in Nigeria

GCP is delighted to announce the release of UMUCASS33, a new disease-resistant high-yielding cassava variety, a cross-continental perfect pedigree of South American and African parentage. Nigeria's National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) at Umudike, one of GCP's partners, developed this variety in close collaboration with Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical...

October 14, 2011 6:00pm

E-learning course: Pre-Breeding for Effective Use of Plant Genetic Resources

An announcement from Bioversity International: "In response to increasing demand for capacity building on pre-breeding, the Global Partnership Initiative on Plant Breeding Capacity Building (GIPB) has just launched an e-learning course on Pre-breeding for effective use of plant genetic resources for plant breeders and germplasm curators and others engaged...

June 5, 2011 6:00pm