Bringing Drone Phenotyping and Genotyping Workflows to Breeders Across West and Central Africa

Participants examine the drone controller during the field session, learning flight operations and data capture protocols. (Credit: AfricaRice)

From the opening moments of the workshop on August 24 in Abidjan, it was clear this was no ordinary assembly. As Dr. Baboucarr Manneh Director General, Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice)  welcomed delegates to the five-day gathering, he set the tone immediately: this was not just a regular training event. Instead, it was an invitation to ask hard questions, interrogate assumptions, forge lasting partnerships, and confront a challenge that no single institution can solve alone — how to make African breeding programs faster, smarter, and better connected in the face of climate change, shifting markets, and accelerating science. Sarah Hearne, Chief Scientist at CIMMYT speaking on behalf of Breeding Resources, and Young Hwa Lee, Programs Officer at the Gates Foundation, set the broader strategic frame for the week: modernizing breeding across the region is a shared investment, and these shared services are designed to make that investment go further for every institution that uses them. All three put together signaled a deliberate departure from passive capacity building toward active, institutional reform, setting a rigorous standard for how public agricultural research must adapt to meet complex regional realities.

Twenty-four breeders, phenotyping experts, and data scientists from 14 institutions across seven West and Central African countries had gathered for the Regional Capacity Strengthening Workshop on High-Throughput Phenotyping and Genotyping Shared Services for Accelerated Breeding. Co-hosted by AfricaRice and CIMMYT, funded by the Gates Foundation, and co-sponsored by CGIAR's Breeding for Tomorrow through its Breeding Resources initiative, the workshop brought together national research systems and CGIAR centers —IITA, CNRA, CRI, NRCRI, NIHORT IAR, SARI, INERA, IER, ISRA and IRAD — for five days of theory, practice, and peer exchange that participants described as genuinely transformative.

From Classrooms to the Cloud

The programme was designed to cover the full arc of modern plant breeding technology. Sessions explored drone and sensor-based phenotyping, image analytics, genotyping demand forecasting, data workflows, and service planning. Gustavo Teixeira, Lead of Global Shared Services, walked participants through funding models, quality control, and how to access and use shared service platforms. ICRISAT's team presented biofortification, elemental analysis, and NIR spectroscopy services — technologies that could make locally produced varieties not just productive but more nutritious.

Taking the Drone to the Field

The highlight of the week came when the group traded the conference room for open sky practical session. At CNRA's experimental fields in Anguédédou on the outskirts of Abidjan — with an agri-drone provided in kind by CNRA — participants moved through the full cycle of a drone phenotyping mission: field setup, flight planning, live operations, and real-time data capture. For many, it was the first time they had operated a drone in a breeding context.

Participants and facilitators of the Regional Capacity Strengthening Workshop on High-Throughput Phenotyping and Genotyping Shared Services gather for the official group photo at Silver Moon Hotel, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. (Credit: AfricaRice)

The energy in the field was different from anything that could happen in a lecture hall. Participants clustered around the equipment, exchanging observations, asking the kind of specific questions that only arise when you are holding the controller and watching the data appear. “This workshop will help us move forward with drone phenotyping,” one participant said at the closing. “We will discuss with breeders upon arrival and start drone phenotyping activities.” “We need to move from traditional to digital phenotyping,” said another.

Workshop participants gather around drone equipment at CNRA's experimental fields in Anguédédou, Abidjan, during the hands-on drone phenotyping session. (Credit: AfricaRice)

The closing evaluation gave a clear picture of what the week had achieved. Participants spoke about returning to their institutions ready to act — to share what they had learned with colleagues, to begin accessing the service portal, to plan drone phenotyping activities, to apply for genotyping services. Many noted the quality of the peer connections formed during the week and their intention to stay in touch through the professional network built in Abidjan.

Building a Regional Community of Practice

The workshop closed on 28 August with crop teams presenting genotyping forecasts and partners mapping out concrete next steps. The goal is not to stop at one workshop — it is to turn the relationships, the skills, and the shared access to services built this week into a functioning regional community of practice around modern breeding technologies. “The genotyping services will help us advance more precisely the breeding materials,” reflected one participant.

AfricaRice and CIMMYT, with the continued support of the Gates Foundation and CGIAR's Breeding Resources initiative, are committed to that longer journey. Because faster breeding programs in West and Central Africa mean better varieties reaching farmers sooner — and that is what this week in Abidjan was ultimately about.