Increasing the efficiency of breeding through farmer participation
Views
0% 0
Downloads
0 0%
Open access
Citation
Salvatore Ceccarelli, Stefania Grando. (25/4/1997). Increasing the efficiency of breeding through farmer participation. Italy.
Abstract
Participatory plant breeding (PPB) -- defined as farmers’ participation in selection of early segregating
populations -- should become a component of formal plant breeding programs to exploit more
efficiently specific adaptation, and therefore to mach more precisely crops to their environment,
particularly in the case of marginal, difficult, stressful environments. PPB is the only possible approach
to breed crops grown in unfavorable conditions and/or remote regions, in areas not sufficiently large to
justify the interest of large breeding programs, and to breed for minor crops neglected by both private
and public plant breeding programs.
The paper describes decentralized and participatory selection and the relationships between
them. A number of methodological issues -- such as the choice of participating farmers, the number of
farmers doing the selection, the gender of who does the selection, the number of lines to use, and
comparison between decentralization and participation -- are discussed as aspects of a true partnership
between breeders and farmers.
Participatory plant breeding should be linked not only with formal breeding programs --
providing a continuous flow of novel genetic variability -- but also with the informal seed supply system
which can spread new varieties in the farmers’ communities without the unnecessary requirements of
the formal seed system
