ABSTRACT
This chapter presents key issues in crop genetic improvement for agricultural transformation in Southern Africa. It highlights the current breeding technologies, major constraints to plant breeding programmes and some of the reasons for low levels of adoption of freshly released, modern crop varieties by smallholder farmers in Southern Africa. The chapter also discusses the core support needs of plant breeders to guide policymakers to create enabling environments and to make investment decisions to support plant breeding as a core component of agricultural development in the region. The chapter advocates the need for demand-led variety design in the region following best practices from public and private sectors in Africa and internationally for successful variety design, product profiling and market.
