The intent of DLB is to lead to greater availability of new, high performing crop varieties that respond to customer needs and market demand, and which will, in the longer term, lead to increased adoption of new high performing varieties by farmers in Africa, contributing to food and nutritional security and income generation.

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The scientific impacts are to better integrate all aspects of market demand into the design of new plant varieties. This involves the systematic use of product profiles to define the priority traits identified through consultation within the value chain for each crop and country. This includes incorporating demand from farmers (primarily addressing biological constraints), as well as demands from consumers (such as taste, color, quality) and demand from suppliers (e.g. storage quality).

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Demand led breeding has developed product profiles that identify the priority traits required by various actors along the value chain.  The following guidelines have been developed for a range of crops, environments, and markets and available under “Resources / Brochures & Fliers”.

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Product Profiles

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• A Practitioners Guide: Overview

• A Practitioners Guide: Creating product profile summaries

• Toolkit Template

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Product Profiles – examples

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• Kersting's Groundnut - High-yielding, cream-seeded Kersting’s groundnut

• Extended shelf-life Tomato inbred - Ghana

• High-yielding hot-set Tomato hybrid - Benin

• Fresh bean Pod - Higher yielding, attractive bean pod with a longer shelf-life for the emerging fresh pod bean market

• Yellow dry bean -  Earlier maturing, attractive dry yellow beans for the growing market in Tanzania and Eastern Africa region

• Mung bean/green gram (Vigna radiata) - High yielding, bold seed size green gram - Ethiopia

• Rice (Oryza sativa L.) - Early maturing, lowland, long slender grain rice

• Superior dry grain sugar bean variety - Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) 

• Small white canning bean - Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

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The establishment of technical data sheets which compare the performance of new varieties against a check (currently grown) variety, will verify the breeding programs, and form part of the communications plan to promote new varieties and their desirable attributes.