IRRI Bangladesh wins best poster presentation at 2019 KSBS SABRAO International Conference

Scientist MK Hossain from the Bangladesh Office of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) won the best poster presentation at the 2019 International Conference on Plant Breeding for Sustainable Development, which was held last July 2-5 2019 in Gwangju City, South Korea.

The conference, organized by the The Korean Society for Breeding Science (KSBS) and the Society for the Advancement of Breeding Research in Asia and Oceania (SABRAO), aims to promote scientific and technical cooperation among scientists working in plant breeding and genetics in order to contribute towards progress in agricultural production and food security in the region.

The winning poster, entitled ‘The promise of genomic selection in breaking yield ceiling in rice’, illustrates how IRRI’s modern breeding approaches, using technologies like high throughput molecular markers and data-driven breeding decision-support tools, are cutting down breeding cycles 2-3 fold and making it easier to select for best traits. This has great potential for sustainable and accelerated yield increase in each generation and resulting genetic gain after every cycle.

The poster was authored by MK Hossain in collaboration with IRRI Bangladesh Plant Breeding team led by Dr. Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, and partners from the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute and the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture.

Population growth and climate change are increasingly adversely affecting global food security, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Enhancing crop productivity and quality is a critical challenge for sustainable development, with plant breeding technology playing a key role in creating new crop varieties and useful genetic resources.

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