Plants, Genes and People: Improving the Relevance of Plant Breeding in Africa

Abstract

SUMMARY Plant breeders cannot respond to every quirk of farmers' circumstances but the relevance of breeding research in poor nations can be improved. Recent innovations in germplasm screening programmes for developing nations highlight important differences in selection criteria between farmers and scientists, and among farmers themselves. Drawing on the authors' African experience with International Agricultural Research Centres working on maize and potatoes, the paper explores how breeding programmes benefit from an understanding of farmers' own detailed knowledge about the crop varieties they already cultivate. Issues considered include farmers' use of cultivar diversity, the trade-off between yield and maturity class as selection criteria, defining appropriate experimental conditions, and innovative techniques to increase farmer participation in germplasm screening.