Our Sleeping Asset: A Strategic Approach to Getting Value From Plant Breeding Reports

Each report from a public plant breeding project is an opportunity for public relations and public education about the value of plant breeding in general, and your program in particular.   Reports may go far:  they reach director’s offices, state houses, and farm groups; through USDA, some go as far as Congress and the White House.  There is much more that can be done, with little or no additional effort, to make existing reports tell more and work harder for plant breeding, without adding to the reporting burden.  The potential reach of every report makes it worth-while to take a strategic look at the reporting we already do.  

This presentation will consider ways to increase the impact of the reports you already write.  It will also describe some common omissions or misunderstandings that unnecessarily reduce the value of reports even from programs that are in reality strong and successful.  Fortunately, these errors are often readily corrected.  

Mature breeding programs have a history of impact to draw on to add value to their reporting.  For a new plant breeding program, the challenge is greater.  Would it be constructive for plant breeding, as a discipline, to develop excellence criteria that new plant breeding programs can use for planning and reporting?  What would such criteria be?  How would they be established? 

Finally, the Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee exists to serve the need for sustained leadership on national strategic issues relating to plant breeding, as issues arise, evolve, and change over time.  Such an entity is relevant in a democratic society where public decisions are reached through a constant process of dialogue and give and take.