Farmers And Plant Breeding

This book presents the history of, and current approaches to, farmer-breeder collaboration in plant breeding, situating this work in the context of sustainable food systems, as well as national and international policy and law regimes. Plant breeding is essential to food production, climate-change adaptation and sustainable development. This book brings together experienced practitioners and researchers involved in collaborative breeding programmes across a diversity of crops and agro-ecologies around the world. Case studies include collaborative sorghum and pearl millet breeding for water-stressed environments in West Africa, participatory rice breeding for intensive rice farming in the Mekong Delta, and evolutionary participatory quinoa breeding for organic agriculture in North America. While outlining the challenges, the volume also highlights the positive impacts, such as yield increases, farmers’ empowerment in the innovation and development processes, contributions to maintenance of crop genetic diversity and adaptation to climate change. This collection offers a range of perspectives on enabling conditions for farmer–breeder collaboration in plant breeding in relation to biodiversity agreements such as the Plant Treaty, trade agreements and related intellectual property rights (IPR) regimes, and national seed policies and laws. Relevant to a wide audience, including practitioners with experience in plant breeding and management of crop genetic resources and those with a broader interest in agriculture and development, as well as students of international cooperation and development, this volume is a timely addition to the literature.

The purpose of this book is to examine the nature of and relationship between the knowledge of farmers and of scientists, and how these can be best integrated in plant breeding.

This book, Plant Breeding, has it bases in an earlier text entitled An Introduction to Plant Breeding by Jack Brown and Peter Caligari, first published in 2008. The challenges facing today’s plant breeders have never been more overwhelming, yet the prospects to contribute significantly to global food security and farmers’ quality of life have never been more exciting and fulfilling. Despite this there has been a worrying decline in public funding for plant breeding-related research and support for international centers of germplasm development and crop improvement. In part, this has resulted in a serious reduction in the number of young people interested in devoting their professional careers to plant breeding as well as the number of universities offering plant breeding courses or conducting relevant research in plant breeding. The authors’ aim in writing this book is to provide an integrated and updated view of the current scientific progress related to diverse plant breeding disciplines, within the context of applied breeding programs. This excellent new book will encourage a new generation of students to pursue careers related to plant breeding and will assist a wider audience of agricultural students, agronomists, policy makers and those with an interest in agriculture in gaining insight about the issues affecting plant breeding and its key role in improving the quality of life of people and in securing sufficient food, at the quality required and at an affordable price. With comprehensive coverage including questions designed for students, and an accompanying website containing additional material to help in the study of the subject, Plant Breeding is an ideal text for all those studying plant and crop sciences, and a convenient reference source for professionals working in the area. All libraries within universities and research establishments where biological and agricultural sciences are studied and taught should have multiple copies of this book.

Plant breeding has played a significant role in the development of human civilizations. Conventional plant breeding has significantly improved crop yield by genetically manipulating agronomically important traits. However, it has often been criticized for ignoring indigenous germplasm, failing to address the needs of the marginal and the poor farmers, and emphasizing selection for broad instead of local adaptation. Participatory plant breeding (PPB) is the process by which the producers and other stakeholders are actively involved in a plant-breeding programme, with opportunities to make decisions throughout. The Working Group on Participatory Plant Breeding (PPBwg) was established in 1996 under the framework of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Research in PPB can promote informed participation and trust in research among consumers and producers, and in recent years, PPB has had a significant impact on food production by quickly and cost-effectively producing improved crop varieties. At the same time, there has been significant research in the area. PPB offers significant advantages that are particularly relevant to developing countries where large investments in plant breeding have not led to increased production, especially in the marginal environments. In addition to the economic benefits, participatory research has a number of psychological, moral, and ethical benefits, which are the consequence of a progressive empowerment of the farming communities. PPB can empower groups such as women or less well-off farmers that are traditionally left out of the development process. This book explores the potential of PPB in the coming decades. The topic is more relevant since international breeding efforts for major crops are aimed at decentralizing local breeding methods to better incorporate the perspective of end users into the varietal development process. The first book incorporating the upcoming research on this novel breeding approach, it reviews the important tools and applications of PPB in an easy-to-read, succinct format, with illustrations to clarify these complex topics. It provides readers with a basic idea of participatory plant breeding as well as advances in the field and insights into the future to facilitate the successful integration of farmers into breeding programmes. This book is a valuable reference resource for agriculturists, agricultural advisers, policy makers, NGOs, post-doctoral students and scientists in agriculture, horticulture, forestry and botany.

Our requirement for plant breeders to be successful has never been greater. However one views the forecasted numbers for future population growth we will need, in the immediate future, to be feeding, clothing and housing many more people than we do, inadequately, at present. Plant breeding represents the most valuable strategy in increasing our productivity in a way that is sustainable and environmentally sensitive. Plant breeding can rightly be considered as one of the oldest multidisciplinary subjects that is known to humans. It was practised by people who first started to carry out a settled form of agriculture. The art, as it must have been at that stage, was applied without any formal underlying framework, but achieved dramatic results, as witnessed by the forms of cultivated plants we have today. We are now learning how to apply successfully the results of yet imperfect scientific knowledge. This knowledge is, however, rapidly developing, particularly in areas of tissue culture, biotechnology and molecular biology. Plant breeding's inherent multifaceted nature means that alongside obvious subject areas like genetics we also need to consider areas such as: statistics, physiology, plant pathology, entomology, biochemistry, weed science, quality, seed characteristics, repro ductive biology, trial design, selection and computing. It therefore seems apparent that modern plant breeders need to have a grasp of wide range of scientific knowledge and expertise if they are successfully to a exploit the techniques, protocols and strategies which are open to them.

This book complements the traditional approach to plant breeding by addressing a number of issues specifically related to the participation of farmers in a plant breeding programme, and provides a comprehensive description and assessment of the use of participatory plant breeding in developing countries. It is aimed at plant breeders, social scientists, students and practitioners interested in learning more about its use, with the hope that they all will find a common ground to discuss ways in which plant breeding can be beneficial to all and can contribute to alleviate poverty.

In the tradition of Silent Spring, Raoul Robinson's Return to Resistance calls for a revolution. Traditional plant breeding techniques have led us to depend more and more on chemical pesticides to protect ourcrops. Return to Resistance shows gardeners, farmers, and plant breeders how to use a long-neglected technique to create hardy new plant varieties that are naturally resistant to pests and disease. Horizontal resistance breeding has been largely ignored in this century due to the popularity and apparent successes of the Mendelian geneticists. However the colossal, unrecognized failure of m.