TL III Progress Report

Abstract

TL III is a visionary project that aims to improve the lives of smallholder farmers in the target region through enhanced grain legume productivity and production. It operates under three pillars: (1) Developing improved varieties; (2) Improving breeding program capacity; and (3) Seed delivery and gender as a crosscutting theme. The activities included under pillar 1 are: (i) Trait discovery pipeline; (ii) Breeding pipeline; (iii) Testing for release; and (iv) Best bet varieties. Pillar 2 lays emphasis on developing the capacity of partner breeding programs by incorporating modern breeding technologies. Pillar 3 seeks to ensure timely delivery of improved cultivars to smallholder farmers through efficient seed systems via: (i) establishment of multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs); (ii) seed production and delivery; (iii) innovative and targeted seed marketing; (iv) popularizing new varieties; and (v) strengthening impactoriented seed systems. This report is organized by crop breeding program into the following sections: (i) Development and release of farmer-preferred legume crop varieties; (ii) Strengthening seed production and delivery systems for improved varieties and practices for enhanced awareness, adoption and impact to small-holders, especially underserved women farmers; and (iii) Strengthening legume breeding capacities of partner NARS and CGIAR centers (ICRISAT, IITA and CIAT), mainly in Africa.