A policy brief drafted by CIMMYT outlines a study on tracking released bread wheat varieties using DNA fingerprinting complemented by the conventional farmer recall survey. The study found that decisions based solely on farmer surveys may be misleading and accurate variety data from genotyping is a foundation for improved adoption monitoring, and better decision making. This work influenced the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to launch a call for proposals to build on DNA fingerprinting of bread wheat varieties.