The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research–Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI), in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), has strengthened the capacity of five crop breeding teams through a five-day Enterprise Breeding System (EBS) and Bioflow Capacity Strengthening Workshop held at CSIR-SARI in Tamale, Ghana, from 31 August to 4 September 2026.
The workshop, organised under the CGIAR Capacity Sharing (CapSha) initiative, brought together 40 Research Scientists and Technicians from the Cowpea, Soybean, Maize, Cassava and Yam breeding teams. The training was sponsored by the CGIAR Capacity Sharing Accelerator.
The workshop was facilitated by Simon Imoro, IITA Project Manager, with Solomon Ntukidem of IITA serving as co-facilitator. Dr. Theophilus Kwabla Tengey, CSIR-SARI Project Lead, coordinated the workshop.
Opening the workshop, Dr. Francis Kusi, Director of CSIR-SARI, together with Dr. Joseph Adjebeng-Danquah, Deputy Director, welcomed participants and underscored the importance of strengthening the skills and systems needed to support modern crop breeding.
Participants were introduced to the Enterprise Breeding System (EBS) and learned how to manage breeding information, create and manage experiments, design trials, collect and curate data, and organise breeding information for analysis.
The Bioflow component focused on strengthening participants’ understanding of data quality assurance and quality control, single- and multi-environment analyses, selection indices, and genomic prediction using GBLUPs. Participants also explored how high-quality, well-managed breeding data can be transformed into useful analytical information to guide decisions on the selection and advancement of promising crop varieties.
A key message from the workshop was that successful crop breeding depends not only on good field experiments, but also on good data. Well-designed trials, accurate and consistent data collection, proper data management and appropriate statistical analysis are essential for making reliable breeding decisions and developing improved crop varieties for farmers.
Importantly, the workshop reflected the spirit of capacity sharing. It was not simply a one-way training exercise; facilitators and participants shared knowledge, experiences and practical insights, creating an opportunity for mutual learning across the five breeding teams.
CSIR-SARI expresses its sincere appreciation to the CGIAR Capacity Sharing initiative, IITA, CSIR-SARI leadership, the facilitators and co-facilitators, and all participants for their commitment, enthusiasm, thoughtful contributions and active engagement throughout the five-day workshop.
Building stronger breeding teams. Strengthening breeding data. Supporting better crop varieties for farmers.