MEXICO D.F. -- From 17–20 February 2010, collaborators came together for the official launch meeting of GCP’s Molecular Breeding Platform (MBP), held in Hyderabad, India, and hosted by the International Crops Research Institute in the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
The MBP is a broad initiative that is not exclusively limited to molecular breeding: the platform will blend molecular breeding and phenotypic selection as appropriate to serve breeding goals. As such, it aims to unite three main groups: plant breeders, the developers of tools that breeders need and service providers for breeding programmes. The project, which was initiated in September 2009, is jointly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GCP’s core funders, including the European Commission and the UK’s Department for International Development.