Participatory Plant Breeding for Local Crop Adaptation and Maintenance of Genetic Diversity.

The growing number of farmers pursuing organic and low-input management strategies has increased demand for varieties adapted to these systems. Because these systems present complex environmental stress, breeding programs that conduct selection on research stations and then test fixed lines on-farm may not produce varieties that are acceptable across the range of environmental conditions encountered. In this case, breeders may either target very focused regions for different varieties, or create heterogeneous populations that can then evolve specific adaptation through on-farm cultivation and selection. The decentralization of the breeding process often leads to participatory plant breeding (PPB) strategies that take advantage of the specific knowledge of farmers to increase the efficiency of selection. While on-farm selection may narrow the genetic diversity on individual farms, overall diversity is maintained across the network of participating farms. In this manner, the PPB process both creates varieties adapted to specific environmental conditions and conserves the genetic diversity and evolutionary potential of the species. Participatory selection requires increased commitment and engagement on the part of the farmers and breeders. These projects are difficult to plan in advance because by nature they evolve over time to meet the needs of participants. They need to provide relevant information and analysis in a time-frame that is meaningful for farmers, while remaining scientifically rigorous and innovative . It is often challenging to balance the needs of different participants, but there are many examples of successful collaborations. As part of a European Union project, several European, Middle Eastern and African countries are developing and inventory PPB methods to address some of these challenges. In this presentation, PPB in developed countries and the specific case of a French PPB project for wheat will be discussed.