tailieunhanh - BRINGING FARMERS BACK INTO BREEDING - Chapter 2

METHODOLOGIES The plant breeding methodology is well established. It involves setting breeding objectives, generating the required genetic diversity through | Food policy arguments It is estimated that a two- to three fold increase in production is required to meet global food demand in the next 30 to 50 years. It is by no means clear how this will be achieved .One obvious contribution to this target is to more fully exploit the potentials of marginal areas and a whole range of minor crops. This has the particular benefit of increasing food production in areas where food is much needed. Environmental arguments Farmer seed systems are a major source of the remaining agrobiodiversity that exists in situ. This agrobiodiversity is a major source of genetic diversity with direct relevance to local adaptation and meeting divers farmer consumer requirements. Ensuring that farmers retain control over and access to such genetic resources requires in situ conservation systems. 2 Methodologies The plant breeding methodology is well established. It involves setting breeding objectives generating the required genetic diversity through hybridisation recombining the first generations followed by various forms of selection in subsequent generations to increase the frequency desired characteristics and to fix these leading to a new variety that is reasonable uniform and stable. Hence the question in PPB is not so much what to do but how to involve new partners in the breeding process. Technically this is determined by the relative comparative advantages of plant breeders and farmers and the role of other brokers often NGOs who act as facilitators. However in practice the roles that various partners are willing and able to play are not always straightforward. As yet there is no consensus among plant breeders about the advantages of farmers active participation in the various stages of breeding and on-farm selection or the extent to which farmers should be affording responsibility and ownership of the end product. It may seem logical to have farmers set their own breeding objectives and this often accords with the agenda of facilitating .