Building food sovereignty: the future of plant breeding in a shifting development funding landscape

• The importance of viewing development research as a tool of mutual learning and capacity building - where all sectors of the society can and need to join hands.
• Conducting plant breeding projects in line with local and regional priorities from all parts of the crop value chain to work towards food sovereignty and improved nutrition and public health.
• An urgent need to find effective ways of navigating science based development work and upscaling of progress in a rapidly changing political landscape.

These were some main points from an international symposium in Uppsala, Sweden and online. The symposium “A Decade of Swedish - African Collaboration in Agricultural Science for Development in Africa” was arranged 23 September 2025, as a side event connected to the Agri4D conference. Hosts were SLU, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).

Lucia Gutierrez, professor of Crop Breeding and Crop Diversity at SLU welcomed all participants to the event. The symposium started with presentations of successful examples from previous, ongoing and emerging development research projects in African countries and regions.

In focus were different goals, methods and approaches where new crops and development of new crop varieties and the use of them in agriculture and beyond can make a substantial difference, leading to e.g. improved GDP, improved nutritional values in food and stronger food value chains in the local community.

The first presentation was on the successful introduction of durum wheat as a new crop along the Senegal river basin. From not growing wheat at all in this region to now growing 50 000 ha, the initial development research project has substantially impacted the GDP of agriculture in Senegal and Mauretania. Read more: Fast-growing durum wheat for hot climate receives innovation prize

Improving barley varieties combining molecular and participatory methods in Ethiopia was another ongoing project that was presented. Re-designing durum wheat-based foods such as pasta, couscous, and bread using more healthy semolina, was yet another topic.

Associate professor Erik Alexandersson from the Novo Nordisk Foundation ended the presentation session with a talk about the foundation’s more than 100 years of work with improving people’s health and sustainability worldwide.

A list of project presentation titles and presenters can be found below.

Round table discussions on the future of science-based development

The symposium concluded with a panel discussion featuring representatives from Olam Agri, Novo Nordisk Foundation, SLU, ICARDA, and the Nordic breeding industry, who discussed the future of agricultural development research and collaboration. A list of the panel participants can be found below.

The participants shared a strong sense of commitment and motivation. A clear consensus around the table was the importance of continuing doing the work and finding the way forward together.

Challenges include a dramatically different funding landscape, where several countries, including Sweden, and Great Britain have cut funds going into development research, prioritising other political areas.

The importance of viewing development research as a tool of mutual learning and capacity building was raised, where all sectors of society can and need to join hands in closing knowledge gaps and see to that improved crop varieties and technological advancements come into farm practice and are upscaled. The panellists agreed that a continued close collaboration between research, public and private actors is essential. Dr Shailendra Mishra, Global Head of Sustainability at Olam Agri, raised the idea of adding a fourth P to PPP (public private partnership), where the added P stands for philanthropy. Professor Rodomiro Ortiz, Professor of Plant Genetics & Plant Breeding at SLU, argued that development research should be viewed as an investment rather than the idea of helping. This idea was further reinforced at the Agri4D conference opening session when Sara Gräslund, Director of SLU Global, showed that SLU publications involving low- and middle-income countries had a 15% greater impact than those that did not.

The need of including stakeholders in making use of research was also discussed, and it was concluded that people need food and empowerment, not only seed material. Therefore, it is important to conduct plant breeding projects in line with local and regional priorities from all parts of the crop value chain and keep whole food systems and their resilience in mind when designing projects - combining research and development towards the goal of food sovereignty - the step beyond food security.

Text: Ida Andersson, SLU

Blog post

A decade of research for development in West Africa. 

List of participants in round table discussions

Dr Shailendra Mishra, Global Head of Sustainability, Olam Agri

Dr. Augusto Becerra, Deputy Director General, ICARDA

Dr. Hafssa Kabbaj, Research Associate, ICARDA

Assoc. Prof. Erik Alexandersson, Scientific Research Manager, Novo Nordisk Foundation

Dr.  Amadou Tidiane SALL, Wheat breeder, ISRA

Dr. Ahmed Jahoor, Head of Breeding and Development, Nordic Seed

Prof. Rodomiro Ortiz, Professor of Plant Genetics & Plant Breeding, SLU

List of presentations

“Durum wheat for West Africa – Results and Impact in Senegal, Mauritania, and Nigeria”, Filippo Bassi, Senior Scientist & Durum Wheat Breeder, ICARDA

“Back to the Future: Ethiopian barley landraces for tomorrow’s challenges”, Therése Bengtsson, Assoc. Prof., SLU

“Harnessing Ethiopia's Barley Potential: Analyzing Five Decades of Progress and Identifying Remaining Challenges for Food and Malt Sector”, Wondimu Fekadu, Researcher, EIAR

“MedWhealth project achievements and future perspectives”, Andrea Visioni, Scientist, Pre-breeding and Phenotyping, ICARDA

“Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Work with Development Research in the Agricultural Arena”, Assoc. Prof. Erik Alexandersson, Novo Nordisk Foundation