One CGIAR Global Webinar Series - "Applications of Genome Editing in Agriculture

One CGIAR Global webinar series on Genome Editing in Agriculture: Innovations for Sustainable Production and Food Systems

The Crops to End Hunger initiative seeks to “accelerate and modernize the development, delivery and widescale use of a steady stream of new crop varieties developed to meet the food, nutrition and income needs of producers and consumers, respond to market demand and provide resilience to pests, diseases and new environmental challenges arising from climate change.” 

The CGIAR’s Excellence in Breeding Platform will leverage “innovations in the public and private sector to provide access to cutting-edge tools, services, and best practices” needed to modernize plant breeding across the CGIAR and national breeding programs to develop more resilient, productive, and nutritious crop varieties in the developing world.

The webinar series covers five (5) sessions between September 22 – October 20, 2020. Time: 1:30pm – 3:50pm (WAT) – for each webinar

• Webinar 1 – September 22, 2020 - Topic: Genome Editing in Agriculture: Innovations for Sustainable Production and Food Systems
• Webinar 2 – September 29, 2020 - Topic: Applications of Genome Editing in Agriculture: CGIAR Focus on Crop Improvement
• Webinar 3 – October 6, 2020 - Topic: Applications of Genome Editing in Agriculture: CGIAR Focus on Livestock and Aquaculture
• Webinar 4 – October 13, 2020 - Topic: Regulation and Genome Edited Plants
• Webinar 5 – October 20, 2020 - Topic: Path to Commercialization for Genome Edited Crops

The webinar series cover a number of timely topics, including:

1. Applications of genome editing for crop and livestock improvement across CGIAR: An overview of the ongoing work in various CGIAR centers providing context for and examples of agricultural applications of the technology in plant and animal agriculture.
2. Regulation of genome edited plants and animals: Exploring considerations that may impact how or when genome edited products may trigger regulatory oversight, with examples from various countries.
3. Path to commercialization for genome editing crops: Addressing considerations of environmental and food safety for broad categories of genome edited plants (SDN1, SDN2 and SDN3). Exploring issues related to commercial release of genome edited plants, such as stewardship, trade, and regulatory and policy harmonization.

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