Smart Net-Zero

December 19, 2025 | The Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres (CGIAR) |

CGIAR reported progress in embedding on-farm verification trials (OFVT) as a standard final step in breeding pipelines, following a Nairobi convening of the Breeding for Tomorrow (B4T) Science Program, CGIAR and partner breeding teams, the 1000FARMS initiative, and the Gates Foundation. The approach is designed to close the gap between research-station performance and smallholder realities by generating late-stage evidence on how candidate varieties perform under farmers’ practices and conditions—and which traits farmers actually value. B4T will coordinate shared protocols, manuals, and data integration so OFVT results can be consistently captured and compared across crops and regions, strengthening variety-release decisions and variety replacement efforts over time.