As innovation accelerates, the Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee is helping the next generation of breeders build a stronger foundation — one that doesn’t leave behind the crops, programs or people who need it most.
In the world of plant breeding, the quiet revolutions are often the most impactful. For one crop scientist who recently took the reins as chair of the Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee (PBCC), progress doesn’t come from flashy tech alone — it’s about setting the right foundation, sharing data smarter, and mentoring the next wave of breeders so that innovation can scale where it’s needed most.
“I joined the PBCC two years ago because I loved the volunteer spirit of it,” says Juan David Arbelaez, assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “It’s a space where breeders and researchers come together to align efforts for the public good. That’s increasingly rare — and increasingly necessary.”
The PBCC is a group that works to coordinate public sector efforts in plant breeding, focusing on capacity, infrastructure, and educational standards. It aims to strengthen public breeding programs, facilitate collaboration, and address future challenges in the field. The PBCC also plays a role in disseminating information about plant breeding to various audiences, including those outside the immediate research community.
One of its most well-known initiatives was its founding of the National Association for Plant Breeding (NAPB), which has become a very well-known organization that brings plant breeders together from around the United States and Canada.
What’s emerging from the PBCC and NAPB’s efforts is a shift in how the plant breeding community views innovation. It’s no longer just about building the next CRISPR-ed super variety or chasing the newest phenotyping tool, he says. It’s about integration: combining genomics, phenomics, environmental data, and machine learning into a usable system that works for programs of all sizes — even the underfunded ones.
A New Decade of Data-Driven Decisions
“In the next 10 years, our biggest challenge will be integrating all these new tools into our breeding programs in a meaningful way,” Arbelaez says. “We’re collecting incredible amounts of data, but unless we can deploy it through well-designed experiments and digital ecosystems, it won’t translate into better varieties or better food systems.”
The lesson came sharply into focus during his work with rice breeding networks across Asia. To make real impact, trials needed to be coordinated across geographies. Traits had to be measured the same way in the Philippines as in Bangladesh or Nigeria. Only then could molecular markers and genomic prediction models do their job.
“That’s when you start unlocking the power of AI and precision ag,” he says. “But first, your foundation has to be rock solid.”
Why Smaller Breeding Programs Deserve Bigger Thinking
Now leading a relatively small public breeding program, he’s applying those global lessons to help lesser-known crops leap forward. The problems are universal: limited funding, scarce labor, and fewer off-the-shelf tech solutions than the “big three” — corn, wheat, and rice — enjoy.
But the solutions are transferable.
“Partnering with other programs, finding common objectives, even pooling genotyping demand — these are ways to level the playing field,” he says. “Just because a crop is underfunded doesn’t mean it can’t be innovative.”
One of PBCC’s emerging goals is to reimagine what support looks like for public breeders — especially new faculty.
“There’s a mentorship gap. Assistant professors starting breeding programs often don’t have a roadmap for how to succeed — not just scientifically, but administratively. How do you communicate priorities to your department head? How do you structure your time to meet tenure requirements while keeping your program viable?”
Another quiet crisis: what happens to decades of work when a breeder retires?
“We’ve been discussing how to ensure germplasm transitions don’t get lost in the shuffle. If someone leaves, that genetic material shouldn’t disappear. There has to be a better system to transition it or donate it, so the investment isn’t lost.”
Rethinking Royalties, Redesigning the Future
The PBCC is also exploring how to update royalty structures — borrowing ideas from universities and industry alike to make them more adaptable for today’s realities, he adds.
“We want to make sure royalties don’t just trickle into general budgets, but actually sustain the breeding programs generating value in the first place.”
For Arbelaez, it’s clear that the future of breeding isn’t just about science — it’s about systems.
“The best tech in the world won’t fix a broken process. But with mentorship, shared data systems, and a focus on foundational design, we can finally start translating innovation into impact.”
