Within the scope of the G2P-SOL project, the first entry level training school “Vegetable germplasm diversity and breeding” has taken place in Hyderabad, India from 22-25 January 2018.
 
The training organized by the beneficiary AVRDC (World Vegetable Center) has been a great success: 29 junior breeders from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan learned more about germplasm use, disease resistance breeding, and marker-assisted selection. Participants also had the opportunity to interact with their peers from other companies and institutions and to strengthen their professional networks.
 
“The large number of applications to attend the training school demonstrated the great interest of seed companies to use new germplasm for crop improvement. I am confident that the outputs of the G2P-SOL project will be rapidly taken up by Solanaceae breeding programs world-wide”, stated Roland Schafleitner from The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC), G2P-SOL consortium member and organizer of the training school.
 
















Genebank specialists, breeders and a biostatistician informed the participants about the project and trained them in the use of genetic diversity in breeding. The lectures focused on germplasm conservation, access to genebank materials and breeding technologies including biostatistics and molecular breeding. Visits to the WorldVeg tomato and pepper fields and hands-on exercises in seed treatment added a practical dimension to the lessons learned in the classroom sessions.
 
“The course offered an excellent opportunity to present and to have lively discussions with the trainees on how to increase the efficiency of the breeding programs according to the regional and global present and future challenges”, said Prof. Jaime Prohens, Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), G2P-SOL consortium member and trainer of the G2P-SOL school. “This entry level course has been a great contribution from the G2P-SOL project to the enhancement of new germplasm and modern molecular techniques for vegetable crops in Southeast Asia.” 
 
Background information about G2P-SOL
 
Breeding better crops requires access to diverse material for breeding. Genebanks worldwide conserve landraces and wild relatives of agricultural crops, but access to these collections is limited by lack of information on the available genotypes and the properties of these materials.

G2P-SOL aims not only to improve access to genebank materials for breeding but also to share the knowledge and the collected information on germplasm with end-users through databases and dissemination events.