Following on from the GCP-funded Phenotyping course for drought-related traits across tropical legumes – Concepts and practices, held at ICRISAT in March 2008, a summary of the major activities carried out during the course, as well as the main discussions and outcomes, and the next steps to be taken, is now available.

The course, held from 3rd-28th March 2008 at ICRISAT's campus in Patancheru, India, brought together 27 participants, hailing primarily from National Agricultural Research Systems in Africa working on the different species of the Tropical Legumes Improvement (TLI) project, together with a handful of participants from India.

The workshop provided participants with: (i) practical hands-on training in the measurement of drought-related traits and data management, (ii) an understanding of the key principles of phenotyping, and (iii) opportunities for cross-legume (groundnut, cowpea, bean and chickpea) discussions on key traits involved in their adaptation to drought.

Throughout the course, a number of discussions were held on the relevance of various traits to drought adaptation, the key environmental variables to measure while phenotyping; experimental design; the logistical issues related to large phenotyping experiments, and more. The major outcome of the course was that participants left with a good grounding in phenotyping methods, to be put to use in their respective home institutions.

View summary

Materials produced from the course will soon be available in the Capacity-building corner.

Contact: Vincent Vadez