Training on Developing Climate-Resilient Crop Varieties

Module 1: Climate Change and Crop Production

• Overview of climate change impacts on agriculture

• Identifying climate-sensitive crops and regions

• Strategies for climate risk mitigation in crop production

• Case Study: Adapting a staple crop to increasing temperature and water stress

Module 2: Principles of Plant Breeding

• Classical and modern breeding approaches

• Selection techniques and hybridization methods

• Breeding for drought, heat, and pest resistance

• Case Study: Developing a drought-tolerant maize variety

Module 3: Biotechnology and Genetic Tools

• Use of molecular markers and genomic selection

• CRISPR and gene-editing applications in crop improvement

• Evaluating transgenic approaches for climate resilience

• Case Study: Implementing marker-assisted selection in rice breeding

Module 4: Crop Evaluation and Performance Assessment

• Field trials and experimental design

• Phenotyping for stress tolerance and yield performance

• Data analysis and decision-making for variety selection

• Case Study: Comparing performance of multiple wheat varieties under variable rainfall

Module 5: Integration and Deployment Strategies

• Scaling resilient varieties for commercial and smallholder farming

• Seed systems, quality assurance, and distribution channels

• Policy and regulatory considerations for climate-resilient crops

• Case Study: Introducing resilient crops into a regional agricultural system