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Participatory Breeding for Stressful Environments on June 28, 2003 MAF, UAE. Dr. Salvatore Ceccarelli, ICARDA-Plant Breeder presented the seminar. The seminar was opened by Mr. Abdullah Abdul Aziz, Assistant under secretary for agricultural affaires, MAF Over twenty scientists, researchers and extension officers from the Ministry, ICBA, Arid Ideas/Higher Colleges of Technology attended. A question and answer session followed the seminar. |
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Participatory plant breeding, defined often as selection done by the target users in the target environments, has received increasing attention in recent years. However, most of the work published so far on participatory plant breeding is actually farmer participation in variety selection (PVS), which is a linear process reflecting a sporadic, episodic or occasional type of farmers’ participation, and lacks the cyclic nature of plant breeding. Also, there has been comparatively more work done to properly sample the participating farmers and to understand their preferences and attitudes than on methodologies, experimental designs and statistical analysis needed to transform a centralized-non participatory plant breeding program into a decentralized-participatory plant breeding program (PPB). The seminar described how to implement, in the case of self-pollinated crops, a participatory plant breeding program in terms of (1) at
which stage the breeding material goes into farmers’ fields, The methodology which was described, allows the participation of farmers in the development of new cultivars regardless of farm size, gender and wealth, and because of its cyclic nature, develops farmers’ skills and incorporates innovations generated by the increased skills, resulting in various degrees of farmers’ empowerment. The main advantages of this new methodology are the shortest time to release a new variety, the best use of resources and the generation of environment-friendly cultivars.
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