Variety development strategy and stage plan.

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter contains five main sections. The first, 'New Variety Development Strategy', discusses the creation of a de novo demand-led new variety development strategy as a strategic communications document. The second, 'Development Stage Plan', aims to present a clear understanding of the key components and benefits of a demand-led development stage plan that contains the key decision points and information needed for line progression. The stage plan includes all of the required activities and timelines for the creation of new varieties of the target crop. The third section, 'Timelines and Critical Paths', underlines the value of organizing the activities involved in developing demand-led varieties into an optimized plan and describes how to determine the critical path sequence and conduct critical path analysis. The fourth section, 'Risk Management', discusses the implementation of risk mitigation measures to reduce the likelihood of delays and ensure that outputs are delivered on time. Lastly, the section on 'Variety Registration' aims to promote an understanding of the requirements and timescale needed to register a new improved variety for a crop in a country or region. This includes an ability to be able to engage with variety registration officials to ensure that registration procedures are tailored for additional market-demanded traits and to seek their support during the varietal development process. The aim of the chapter is to enable African plant breeders to understand the principles and share the best practices in the construction of a variety development strategy and stage plan for demand-led variety design, and to act as a resource for education in this field.