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Abstract

Growing on the availability of new data technologies, accelerating the pace of genetic gain has recently emerged as a fundamental goal in plant breeding for the global South, linking biological interest in crop development with economic interest in increasing the cost effectiveness of breeding programmes. The concept of genetic gain, the circumstances surrounding its emergence as an indicator of agricultural development and the broader implications of this development are all explained in this paper. A special focus is placed on how plant breeding’s knowledge control regimes are changing, the social and political repercussions for smallholder farmers and climate adaptive agriculture. We examine how the relationship between development objectives and practise is impacted by the order in which the variables used to construct the indicator are prioritized when choosing agricultural policies. We come to the conclusion that, in the absence of data on other critical areas (such as agro biodiversity, seed systems and the varied impacts of climate change on soil, crops and communities), as well as tools to assess the benefits and drawbacks of the acceleration in seed selection, management and evaluation fostered by the adoption of genetic gain as a key indicator, genetic gain should not be taken into consideration as a primary indicator of agricultural development.

Keywords: Indicators; Quantitative genetics; Plant breeding; Agriculture; Climate change; Development; Molecular basis of plant breeding; Favorable allele; Fiber length; Gene based breeding