Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:52:32 +0100
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This is KN Rai again from ICRISAT, India.
Most of the discussions on the subject has gone on challenges and opportunities, and these are truly interesting. But the response/inputs to the first main conference question (i.e. what have been impact of genomics technologies so far) remains unaddressed and still not forthcoming, and this is vital for the breeders to appreciate the application power of these technologies and their cost effectiveness. There is no doubt in anybody's mind that these are the technologies which will be routinely applied effectively in the future, but how far away is this future (a few years or few decades from now?) when one can expect to see systematic application and impacts of these technologies rather than just a few success island stories. Most of the breeders are not appreciative of the power of genomics power when examples of successes are presented with respect to simply inherited traits (like flowering time, plant height, seed weight and disease resistance etc.), traits which have been quite ably and cost effectively improved using conventional breeding methods. To be convinced of its power, it has to be demonstrated with examples of successes for complex traits (like yield, drought tolerance, water use efficiency and several of the nutritional traits having large genotype x environment (G x E) interaction and huge field/laboratory evaluation cost) which are difficult to improve by conventional methods.
Kedar N. Rai
Principal Scientist and Director, HarvestPlus-India Biofortification
Dryland Cereals Research Program
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT),
Patancheru 502 324
India
Tel (O) +91-40-3071 3323
(H) +91-40-23000534
Mob : +91-0-9963572888
Fax (O) : +91-40-3071 3074
E-mail : k.rai (at) cgiar.org
Website : www.icrisat.org
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