Written by Ruvicyn Bayot
CGIAR Science Week highlights how combining crop breeding with market intelligence from the very start of the process can contribute to identifying opportunities, promoting equity, and achieving greater impact.
NAIROBI, Kenya (11 April 2025) — At the sidelines of the 2025 CGIAR Science Week, the CGIAR Market Intelligence Team shared their latest research findings with the theme Harnessing Market Intelligence to Shape CGIAR Breeding for Greater Impacts. The presentations drew attention to the critical role of market and behavioral intelligence in guiding global crop breeding programs.
The side event brought together leading crop and animal breeders and social scientists to explore latest innovations in crop breeding. The first hour of the event was a deep dive into forward-looking insights from seed producers, processors and consumers to help CGIAR breeding programs address pressing global sustainability issues such as poverty, malnutrition, food insecurity, gender inequality, and climate change.
“What is important is that Market Intelligence is a pipeline in itself that feeds into the Breeding for Tomorrow pipeline.”, IRRI Principal Scientist for Market and Food Systems Research Dr. Matty Demont stated. He elaborated that the integration of Market Intelligence in crop breeding starts with a steering package of digital tools centered around the Global Market Intelligence Platform (GloMIP), where market intelligence datasets are collected, shared, and exchanged. GloMIP interacts directly with the Breeding Portal where all the breeding management decisions are made.
IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Dr. Berber Kramer presented findings on how breeding professionals currently use and value market intelligence. She highlighted priority areas for breeding programs and discussed the barriers hindering the effective use of market intelligence. Dr. Kramer emphasized that while tools and standard protocols are essential to overcome these barriers, behavioral change is equally important. This change can be facilitated through incentives and capacity building.
IITA Agricultural Economist Dr. Sika Gbegbelegbe discussed the use of a Participatory Foresight approach to elicit near-future market segments. This approach aims to align breeding priorities with anticipated consumer and environmental demands.
ICRISAT Principal Scientist for Agricultural Economics Dr. Swamikannu Nedumaran introduced an innovative angle by exploring non-food crop markets, specifically the growing opportunity for sweet sorghum as a biofuel source. His research highlights the potential for the global expansion of growing areas for sweet sorghum.
IRRI Senior Scientist Dr. Melanie Connor presented a case study on gendered preferences in rice trait selection. She demonstrated how market intelligence can be leveraged to create gender-intentional product designs that better meet the needs of different consumer groups.
Dr Kramer returned to discuss the barriers to varietal adoption. She explored how the use of sociotechnical bundles can improve perceptions of improved varieties and foster greater adoption.
IRRI Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Bert Lenaerts gave a presentation on the features of GloMIP, a powerful decision-support tool designed to help researchers and policymakers set breeding and investment priorities at scale. GloMIP integrates diverse datasets and modeling tools to simulate future scenarios and optimize breeding pipelines.
The session served as a powerful reminder that modern crop breeding is also about understanding people and markets. With these innovations, CGIAR is pushing the boundaries of conventional breeding to deliver smarter, more inclusive, and more impactful solutions.
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WATCH the full session at CGIAR’s Youtube channel.