Ag Tech and Research News

Revised Market Segmentation for Spring Wheat-achieving Alignment Between ICARDA and CIMMYT

Agnes Gitonga, Wuletaw Tadesse, Velu Govindan, Jason Donovan

03 July 2024, US: The initial seed product market segmentation exercise, led by the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding (EiB) platform, aimed to aid the design of center-specific pipeline investment cases. Therefore, each CGIAR center presented its set of seed product market segments (SPMSs) for every region in which it had active breeding efforts. This resulted in duplication of segments in the initial version of the SPMS Database because of more than one center working on the same crop in the same subregion. The CGIAR initiative on Market Intelligence has been working with centers targeting the same crop in a particular subregion to have a common “crop view” (as opposed to ‘center view”). The benefits of having a crop view include:

  • Objective crop prioritization at a subregion level based on accurate market view as a result of acreage alignment, which resolves challenges caused by duplication
  • Alignment of target product profiles (TPPs), thus addressing farmer, consumer, and processor needs in each prioritized market segment within a subregion
  • Clarity on SPMSs being served as well as those that have been overlooked

Recent experiences with spring wheat provide an illustration of how to achieve a crop view of segmentation. In this case, there was duplication of market segments with each subregion—one set provided by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and one by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). The market segment sets from both centers tended to reflect current breeding pipelines more than farmers’ requirements in terms of where and how the crop is grown and what this crop is used for. This led to similar market segments with different names based on different approaches to how certain criteria were applied, e.g., production environment. It was therefore important to have a uniform approach to application of the eight market segmentation criteria (see Market Intelligence Brief #1).

The CGIAR Initiative on Market Intelligence, together with ICARDA and CIMMYT, worked to resolve this issue. Below are the common spring wheat market segments identified for the target subregions.

Table 1: Revised market segments for spring wheat  

SubregionMarket Segments
Eastern AfricaSpring wheat, N, EAF, Food processing, White, Mid/high altitude, Rainfed, Mid
Eastern AfricaSpring wheat, N, EAF, Food processing, White, Lowlands, Irrigated, Mid
Southern AfricaSpring wheat, N, SAF, Food processing, White, Drylands, Rainfed, Mid
Northern AfricaSpring wheat, N, NAF, Food processing, White, Optimum environment, Rainfed, Mid
Northern AfricaSpring wheat, N, NAF, Food processing, White, Drylands, Irrigated, Mid
Western AfricaSpring wheat, N, WAF, Food processing, White, Dryland, Rainfed, Mid
Western AfricaSpring wheat, N, WAF, Food processing, White, Dryland, Irrigated, Mid
Central AsiaSpring wheat, N, CA, Food processing, White, Dryland, Rainfed, Mid
Central AsiaSpring wheat, N, CA, Food processing, White, Optimum environment, Rainfed, Mid
Central AsiaSpring wheat, N, CA, Food processing, White, Dryland, Irrigated, Mid
Southern AsiaSpring wheat, N, SA, Food Processing, White, Optimum environment, Irrigated, Mid
Southern AsiaSpring wheat, N, SA, Food Processing, White, Semi optimum – drought, Irrigated, Early
Southern AsiaSpring wheat, N, SA, Food Processing, White, Semi optimum-heat, Irrigated, Early
Southern AsiaSpring wheat, N, SA, Food Processing, White, Drylands, Rainfed, Early
Southern AsiaSpring wheat, N, SA, Food Processing, White, Semi optimum, Rainfed, Early
Western AsiaSpring wheat, N, WA, Food processing, White, Dryland, Rainfed, NA
Western AsiaSpring wheat, N, WA, Food processing, White, Optimum environment, Rainfed, Mid
Western AsiaSpring wheat, N, WA, Food processing, White, Dryland, Irrigated, Mid
Latin America and the CaribbeanSpring wheat, N, LAC, Food Processing, White, Optimum environment, Rainfed, Mid
Latin America and the CaribbeanSpring wheat, N, LAC, Food Processing, White, Lowlands, Rainfed, Early
Latin America and the CaribbeanSpring wheat, N, LAC, Food Processing, White, Drylands, Rainfed, Mid
Latin America and the CaribbeanSpring wheat, N, LAC, Food Processing, Red, High Rainfall, Rainfed, Mid
Latin America and the CaribbeanSpring wheat, N, LAC, Food Processing, White, High Rainfall, Rainfed, Mid

Both centers also agreed on the identification of common market segment at the subregion level and the estimated area under crop at the country level, giving a complete view of the market segments and the acreage under every identified market segment.

The joint effort of working on a crop view has laid a good foundation for future spring wheat crop-level discussions with regard to market segments prioritization, future market segments, and crop-level needs for market intelligence. With the newly agreed on market segments, the next step will be to work with the CGIAR Initiative on Market Intelligence, Work Package 2, on alignment of TPPs to ensure that all relevant market requirements that drive product adoption are prioritized in the breeding programs.

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