EGDEN

Elite Germplasm Dissemination and Evaluation Networks (EGDEN) based at IRRI HQ, comprises of 3 pre-variety elite rice breeding lines sharing and evaluation as trials in partnership with national partners from government public sector and non-government private sector companies. EGDEN only shares what are known as Plant Genetic Resource for Agriculture - Under Development, (PGRFA-UD, FAO, http://www.fao.org/plant-treaty/en/). All rice breeding lines are shared with Standard Material Transfer Agreements under the system of Multi Lateral Sharing (MLS) devised for germplasm sharing by FAO and with Open Material Transfer Agreement (OMTA) by IRRI specific to networks.

The networks do not share any Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) or Gene Edited lines (GE) or Hybrid rice lines. All network breeding lines are inbreds and shared in the form of trial kits with trial designs and protocols. The networks also do not share individual breeding lines similar to that of GeneBanks.

These networks are

  1. International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER) This is a global network established in 1975 to share elite rice breeding lines to the national public sector partners in all rice production countries. These breeding lines are shared after several years and locations of testing within the rice breeding program at IRRI. By testing these in several locations and years, IRRI breeders assess the performance of these breeding lines under different environments and climate on a yearly basis and then best lines based on data analysis are nominated to the network. This means national partner who test these entries in their location get opportunity to further select best lines suited to their target locations in their countries and “fast track” nominations to candidate breeding lines to the national variety systems for further evaluations and variety releases. This process saves several years of evaluations and also resources to the national breeding programs. INGER evaluates elite breeding lines in several countries as to date.

  2. ASEAN RiceNet- This is an elite rice germplasm sharing network specifically for ASEAN member states (AMS) namely 1. Lao PDR, 2. Vietnam, 3. Myanmar, 4. Thailand, 5. Cambodia, 6. Philippines, 7 Malaysia, 8. Indonesia 9 Brunei Darussalam. Singapore is a non rice producing nation. This network was established in 2019 after the endorsement of the network proposal at the 41st ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) meeting held at Brunei Darussalam in 2019, by all ministries of Agriculture of AMS and the + 3 dialogue partner countries China, Japan and Korea. The trials for this network commenced in 2020 and capacity building support is being provided to all members of ASEAN RiceNet.

  3. Network for Accelerated Rice Variety Impact (NARVI). The Network for Accelerated Rice Varieties and Impact (NARVI) is a new initiative that builds on the successful model of networks such as INGER. NARVI will provide access to private partners to a pipeline of new elite rice advanced lines (Plant Genetic Resource for Agriculture - Under Development, (PGRFA-UD, FAO, http://www.fao.org/plant-treaty/en/) developed and owned by IRRI in a non-exclusive manner, for evaluation by the private partners in the field, conduct research, and select lines to release as commercial varieties. This initiative will open additional channels for participation of private partners and accelerate the positive impact of IRRI’s elite rice lines by reaching the smallholder farmers faster improved choices to farmers suitable to their requirements. 

    This page is under development...
Comments