COURSE OVERVIEW:

The only Global Hybrid Breeding Advanced Course taught by hybrid breeders! Designed for busy plant breeders, their teams, and future plant breeders, this course aids in designing and developing a true hybrid breeding engine. We cover topics from setting up breeding objectives to managing germplasm and genetic variability, understanding hybrid breeding nuances including trait organization, organizing germplasm into heterotic groups, hybrid breeding techniques, and maximizing hybrid vigor for faster genetic progress and better variety performance in farmers’ fields. In the last hour, we may invite another experienced plant breeder to join for Q&A.

This course is a recommended prerequisite for UC Davis Plant Breeding Academy.

INSTRUCTORS:

Jaap Hoogstraten has 40 years of experience in Breeding of which  over 35 years in Tomato breeding. A University of Wageningen, the Netherlands graduate , Jaap started his career as a coffee breeder in Brazil with FAO in 1981 and spent another 2 years with them in Morocco as a Phytopathologist.

Jaap is recognized as a successful and passionate tomato breeder with over 400 million USD of total sales during his career. He started his tomato career with Royal Sluis in 1986. Originally based in Nimes, France, he moved to Woodland/Davis, California in 1997 after the acquisition by Seminis. A few years later, he returned back to the Netherlands in 1999 where he continued his tomato breeding work through both Monsanto and Bayer transitions.

One of his most notable contributions is the development of commercially successful hybrids with resistance to the Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl virus (TYLCV). He introgressed resistance from a wild tomato species into hybrids sold worldwide. Beyond his efforts breeding tomatoes, Jaap also has been an active and visible leader, serving as Associate Director Tomato Breeding for several years and mentoring colleagues cross-functionally. From 2019 to 2021, Jaap has worked as EMEA Pipeline Planning and Technology Adoption Lead.

Jaap likes sharing his experiences through consulting and giving courses.

Jovan Djordjevic, Ph.D.
Dr. Jovan Djordjevic is a plant breeder and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the global seed industry. His career began in 1996 with Monsanto France as a corn breeder, where he built a strong foundation in hybrid breeding. In 2005, he moved to Canada to lead canola hybrid breeding, playing a key role in transitioning the crop from open-pollinated to hybrid varieties. In 2010, Jovan relocated to California—agriculture’s Silicon Valley—where he served as Global Cucurbits Breeding Director for Nunhems.
Over the course of his prolific career, he has contributed to the release of more than 200 hybrid varieties across crops such as corn, canola, tomato, pepper, sweet corn, watermelon, melon, cucumber, onion, carrot, and leek.
Jovan currently serves as Director of the UC Davis Plant Breeding Academy, where he mentors the next generation of breeders and seed professionals. He also chairs the Plant Breeding Committee for the California Seed Association.
He is a seed business owner, co-founder, and board director at Murray River Seed Co, where he remains hands-on in breeding watermelon and melon. He believes that passionate people, working closely with growers, can truly transform the produce industry for the better.

Questions? Contact Louise Lee at lelee@ucdavis.edu.