Participatory Plant Breeding, Biodiversity, Genetic Resources and Climate Changes.

Climate change is now unequivocal and has already  adverse effects on food production and food quality with the poorest farmers and countries most at risk. This is due to the increased frequency of heat, drought, and salinity and of biotic stresses. Climate change is also expected to cause losses of biodiversity, particularly in marginal environments. Plant breeding has been always addressing resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses and participatory plant breeding (PPB) is advocated as better than conventional plant breeding (CPB) in terms of higher effectiveness in marginal environments, speedy development and deployment of new varieties, and ability to increase both spatial and temporal biodiversity. Gender-sensitive PPB has also proven suitable to target the most marginalised farmers and empower them to safeguard both their interests and agro biodiversity. Most of the PPB programs currently implemented are not based on solid scientific basis and this undermines scientists’ confidence, process credibility and potential achievements. Therefore, it is important to develop PPB methodologies able to merge precision and relevance so that PPB programs can achieve measurable genetic gains. The paper gives examples of experimental designs and statistical analysis currently used by ICARDA in six PPB programs (Syria, Jordan, Eritrea, Algeria, Iran and Egypt) as well as examples of variety development, genetic gains, and adoption with a gender-sensitive approach. The paper will also show how PPB can promote participatory evaluation of germplasm collections and re-emphasize population breeding, as evolutionary PPB to adapt crops to climate changes. Both can be combined in an overall dynamic approach which while conserving and characterizing genetic resources, continuously creates new genetic diversity which evolves in the hands of the farmers producing continuously better adapted genotypes.