What do you think of when you think of something acidic? And why is that relevant to World Soil Day? The connection is that, though few people are aware of the issue of acid soils, they affect almost half of all the land we use to grow our food worldwide. The negative impact of acid soils on annual global harvests is second only to that of drought.

The 5th of December is World Soil Day, and will also see the official announcement of 2015 as the International Year of Soils. We are celebrating with a blogpost that takes us on a trip back to the time of the dinosaurs, and explores how old family relationships between crops – plus modern scientific tools to reveal the genes they share – are helping breeders to provide farmers with acid-beating crop varieties that survive and thrive even as the soil pH falls.

And for those who would rather skip straight to the technical info, we invite you to our Comparative Genomics Research Initiative.

One of the biggest problems caused by acid soils is aluminium toxicity. In these trials by our partners EMBRAPA, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, the maize plants on the left have been bred to be aluminium-tolerant while those on the right have not.

Recently-crowned cassava is our reigning Queen of the Screen, with her current consort Emmanuel Okogbenin of Nigeria keen to show her off in a new GCP video series, now online in seven instalments. Joining us for some key 'Q&A on cassava science in Africa', he walks us through the importance of cassava in Africa; the unique challenges to cassava breeding and ways these are being overcome; recent successes and breakthroughs in research; threats to cassava production; and the huge potential and promises of cassava in and for Africa.

Start with Part 1 for Emmanuel's answer to the question "Is cassava a significant crop?" – and to hear why cassava is "the choice crop for food security" in Africa:

 Or if you know you are ready for a complete treat, watch the full video with all seven episodes combined:

 And for those who prefer the written word, Emmanuel explains the merits of using marker-assisted selection (MAS) in cassava breeding in our June 2014 blogpost.

 More

• For the video enthusiasts: our cassava YouTube playlist
• For the blog buffs: all our cassava-themed blogposts
• GCP projects led by Emmanuel as Principal investigator: MARS for drought | Community of practice
• Presentation on MARS project for drought tolerance from Emmanuel (on SlideShare)
• GCP Cassava Research Initiative | Cassava InfoCentre | Community of practice (IBP website)

If you took our scenic tour a few days ago, you will know that we promised you even more news soon. In addition to the IB–MYC finale (hyperlink) we recently brought you, we are happy to announce that our 2013 Annual Report is now complete, with the publication of the Overview section.

read online |  download PDF (903.1 kB)

This ‘view from the top’, though it is the last of our 2013 Annual Report sections to be published, is the best place to start for any newcomers. Highlights of this reader-friendly digest include GCP’s Final External Review, the release of the Breeding Management System (version 1), selected research achievements, and a peek into the post-GCP future.

Once you have taken in the scene from this lofty vantage point, you will be well-equipped to set off into the GCP landscape, where you’ll find many healthy harvests growing. The other nine sections focus on each of our crop-based Research Initiatives, plus Capacity Building and the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP). And if this merely whets your appetite, our 2012 Annual Report is also now available in its entirety, so jump into the overview for a whole different vista with a hint of time travel too.

read online |  download PDF (428.17 kB)

So let’s take it from the top, and we hope you enjoy these truly topping overviews!

GCP’s Integrated Breeding Multiyear Course (IB–MYC) is in its final session as we ‘speak’, reaching its close after three intensive years. This last gathering runs from 3rd to 14th November 2014, and as always is hosted by our partners IAMZ–CIHEAM (the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza, Spain). IB–MYC is unusual in its approach, but by taking a risk and investing in long-term in-depth training, GCP has shown that IB–MYC is a powerful model for capacity building with profound impact. We congratulate our marathon runners as they approach the finish line, and wish them the best in their ‘integrated breeding’ future as they put the lessons they have learnt into practice.

Read more on IB–MYC, including multimedia highlights and a hint into some of the ways the course’s legacy will live on into the future, in our blogpost.

Our recently published 2013 Annual Report section on capacity building also focussed on IB-MYC, as did the same section in 2012, so follow the links below for more in-depth analyses of our approach, achievements, and lessons learnt.

• 2013 – read online |  download PDF (590.46 kB)
  
• 2012 – read online |  download PDF (381.39 kB)
  

And for a potpourri of insights into our IB–MYC model, Integrated Breeding Platform and Breeding Management System, plus the issue of brain drain, see our latest presentation on SlideShare, ‘Capacity Building: Gain or Drain?’, presented by GCP Director Jean-Marcel Ribaut at the recent Tropical Soybean for Development Workshop.

Participants in the final IB–MYC training session, November 2014. For more photos, see the IAMZ Facebook page.

All aboard the omnibus for a tour of our latest content! We'll be travelling from the light-hearted to the serious, from the living to the dead, and back again – all before supper. And with a range of media and formats, we've something for everyone, from photos and a presentation on capacity building, to our latest annual report and new Sunset Blog.

What do you mean there's a skeleton in your seat? Ah, sorry, he's left over from last week. Just shift him up into the luggage rack and off we go...!

Readers of our newsletter, GCP News, will know that we celebrated the Day of the Dead with a sneak preview of our brand-new Sunset Blog. For those who have not yet visited, this scenic viewpoint will be our next stop. Here, as GCP winds down over the coming months, we will be gathering our most captivating stories, as told by our partners. Feel free to stop off here, watch the sunset, and perhaps pick up some of our attractive souvenirs, in the form of ideas, wisdom, and lessons learnt from ten years of GCP – they're easy to pack in your luggage and take away with you.

When you're ready, back on the bus for another preview – that's also a review of the year 2013. Our latest annual report has now been published almost in its entirety, with the exception of the overview section. This reader-friendly digest will be available soon, but meanwhile dive in to enjoy individual sections on each of our Research Initiatives, as well as Capacity Building and the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP). Take your time: this tour-within-a-tour will take you to fields and laboratories throughout the world, so for greater digestibility we've sliced it onto bite-sized portions and presented it in 'menu' format.

Give your glasses a polish and get ready to see the sights on the last leg of today's trip. You won't want to miss our latest presentation on SlideShare, with the provocative title of 'Capacity Building: Gain or Drain?' Explore models for meaningful capacity building and the issue of brain drain, and imagine yourself in the audience with a crowd's-eye-view of GCP Director Jean-Marcel Ribaut at the Tropical Soybean for Development Workshop.

Finally, the group photo from this year's General Research Meeting (GRM) is now available to view or download on our website and on Flickr – can you spot yourself or your friends?

Our whistle-stop tour is at an end, and we're back at the terminus already. Please remember to take your belongings with you (and do please leave the skeleton where he is!). We hope you will travel with us again soon – over the next few days we'll be offering fresh posts on our Sunset Blog, the final overview section of the 2013 Annual report, new videos, and more. Stay tuned!

We travel from the lab to the latrine in our blogpost on Open Access Week, 20–26 October 2014, which this year has the highly pertinent theme of ‘Generation Open’.

Starting with a perilous (and smelly!) mission, we do some deep trawling to explore openness and transparency, and the good things that emerge when we leave shame and secrecy behind. In particular, we celebrate our freshly minted open-access publication, and all our other open-access authors.

Watch a short introduction to Open Access Week below (courtesy of UCMerced on YouTube), then hightail it to our blog!

The 5th International Conference on Next Generation Genomics and Integrated Breeding for Crop Improvement, sponsored by GCP, is to be held at ICRISAT, Greater Hyderabad, India during 18-20 February 2015. It promises to be of great interest to many in the GCP community and indeed the list of speakers and participants is already full of familiar names, including GCP Director Jean-Marcel Ribaut. The event is being organised by our longstanding partner and friend Rajeev K Varshney.

The conference will provide a platform for scientists and other stakeholders to communicate, share ideas and present their work on different aspects of modern genomics and breeding for crop improvement for global food security. It will be organised into structured technical sessions with eminent guest speakers in the fields of genetics, genomics, breeding and allied sciences. A poster session will also be arranged to encourage participation by younger researchers.

The key themes for presentations and discussion are:

• Next generation genomics
• Novel mapping approaches and QTLs
• Advances in phenotyping and trait mapping
• Marker-assisted selection/backcrossing
• Genomic selection
• Decision support tools for breeding
• New horizons for crop improvement

Rajeev invites all those interested to contribute to and participate in this feast of scientific riches, and to come and explore the historic city of Hyderabad – and to encourage their colleagues and collaborators to do so too!

Mark your diary now, and see the conference webpage for more information and to download the flyer.

Seven years ago almost to the day, jointly with ICRISAT and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we did a press release for World Food Day 2007. This was to mark the official launch of the Tropical Legumes Project. Prior to that, a planning meeting had been held in September 2007 in South Africa.

We revisit our 2007 press release today as its title, Legumes step into the limelight in the tropics (shorter version: Food for thought as as legumes step into the limelight in the tropics) is very apt for the season and location – legumes and light, coming during Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. Chickpeas and groundnuts, two of the four legumes TLI works on, are crucial crops in India.

We’re therefore reflecting back on the road behind us, contemplating the road beneath our feet (as we work on GCP’s sunset communications), and gazing into the distance at the road ahead and the future for legumes. Our blogposts on beans, chickpeas,cowpeas and groundnuts trace much of that entire road. And as the stories are still being told, please stay tuned for more forks on the road.

If you prefer a rapid overview with all in one place, see our Legumes Research Initiative and Legumes InfoCentre.

And for the visually addicted, from our photo archives is a snapshot of the participants of the TLI launch meeting way back in 2007. Those who were at the meeting may recall the many light moments there were at the meeting amidst the heavier hardships of logistical, er, challenges! And for TLI old hands and insiders, test yourself, which is why we’ve left the photo uncaptioned for people: seven years on, how many people can you still recognise? On to the photo!

In recognition of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, October 17th, we at GCP have returned to our roots to reflect once more on our original understanding of poverty, which has stood the test of time and guided our mission from then up to our imminent sunset.

From the inception of GCP, it was important for us work out how we could have the biggest possible impact in eradicating poverty and hunger, and a purely monetary definition of poverty did not seem to fit the bill. Instead, we used data on numbers of stunted children as an indicator of true poverty to target our activities, combining these with data on where drought was most prevalent worldwide. These are the areas where improved crop varieties can make the biggest difference to rural people.

Read our blogpost for more of our thoughts on how crop breeding contributes to eradicating poverty and transforming lives, how we have tried to maximise and measure our impacts and our call for collective action in agricultural research (which closely mirrors the theme of this year's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty). Text not your cup of tea? The blogpost is photo-rich, so let the world’s children delight you as they take you on a global tour to far-flung farming communities.

Enjoy the game, but keep off the plants! Boys play football next to maize fields in Khulungira, central Malawi. 

Crop connoisseur? Food fanatic? Put your identification skills to the test with our quiz.

In honour of World Food Day (October 16th) 2014, we challenge you to take our quiz. See if you can identify all these food crops, and no cheating now!

Some of them are sure to be foods you eat every day, while – depending on where you live – others may not be so familiar. All are everyday staple foods for people in different parts of the world.

Family farming is the theme for this year’s World Food Day, and 2014 was designated by the UN as the International Year of Family Farming.  All the crops you will see below are grown by many millions of families on small farms around the world, as well as on more commercial scales.

Smallholder farming families tend to be the most food insecure, and the most vulnerable to hunger, poverty and malnutrition. They are also those who can be helped most by crop varieties able to give a good harvest in the face of droughts, diseases and other challenges.

On with the quiz… click on each image to see the answer and learn some intriguing facts about the foods you eat!

1. This food crop can be baked or boiled, roasted or ground, but in the field it’s one of the toughest around.

2. Once associated with Venus, this food crop now has something in common with the African lion.

3. This pearl of a crop has its own goddess in several countries.

4. Not an elephant’s favourite food after all, but a great source of nutrients for people and a lifesaver when famine hits.

5. This food crop comes in a rainbow of colours, but it’s rain that’s looking in short supply.

6. Enya Asa… not a pop star but one of the dishes you can make with this food crop.

7. This curvaceous crop has many names, and even shares one with a musical group.

8. Complicated genetics and a proud history lie behind this food crop’s mild-mannered exterior.

9. This tasty food crop might tell your fortune… we predict higher yields for Africa (and a tall, dark, handsome stranger or two)!