Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding

466 CHAPTER 26
Figure 2 Farmers in Eritrea making visual selections assisted by
a researcher.
In each trial, the scientists record plant height, spike
length, grain yield, total biomass and straw yield, harvest
index, and 1,000 kernel weight. On-station scientists
record the number of days to heading and days to
maturity. The data are subjected to different types of
analysis, such as spatial analysis of unreplicated or
replicated trials (Singh et al. 2003). The environmental
standardized best lineal unbiased predictors (BLUPs)
obtained from the spatial analysis are used to analyze
genotype × environment interactions with the GGE
Biplot software (Yan et al. 2000).
One farmer’s concern was the seed multiplication
of the selected lines. Farmers requested a full control
of this operation to avoid mechanical mixture. To
address this concern, we established, in four of the
eight villages, small seed units consisting of a seed
cleaner that also treats the seed with fungicides against
seed-borne diseases. The unit has a limited capacity
(about 400 kg/h) but allows farmers full control of the
seed quality of their selections in the various stages of
the breeding program. This is the first step towards the
creation of village-based seed production activities.
Step 3: project extension
We soon recognized that the work described above,
will not be able to reach a large number of villages and
farmers and hence have an impact at national level.
Therefore, in the third phase the emphasis was on institutionalization
and scaling-up.
The first step in this direction was the organization
of a workshop, with the participation of the farmers, researchers
(including heads of research stations of agricultural
offices, and research policy-makers), the Seed
Organization, the Extension Service, and the Minister of
Agriculture. The discussions covered the relationships
between PPB, seed production, and variety release.
The mechanism agreed upon for scaling-up PPB was a
gradual transfer of responsibilities from ICARDA scientists
to GCSAR (General Commission for Scientific
Agricultural Research) scientists and the staff of the
Extension Service. This was to be done in such a way that at the end of the process each province would implement all the various
PPB activities within its boundaries, with overall coordination shared between ICARDA and the Ministry of Agriculture. Therefore,
one component of the initial step in scaling-up was a training program for the researchers and extension staff on all aspects of PPB.
As a result, the PPB program was extended from five to seven provinces and from 11 to 25 villages (Figure 3) with between 15
and 30 farmers per village. Such a large network of farmers will facilitate the access of non-participating farmers to the products of
PPB, and to their large-scale adoption. For this to be possible, village-based seed production will play a key role.
One of the examples of the success that the PPB project is having is offered by the variety “Zanbaka”, which about 10 years ago
went through the conventional system and was rejected from being released. When it entered the PPB program it began to be
slowly adopted, until the drought in 2000 forced the farmers to use all the available seed to feed their sheep. ICARDA then distributed
5 t of seed, which was planted on about 50 ha. Within 2 years the variety has reached 3,500 ha in an area receiving
150–250 mm rainfall and where conventional breeding never had any impact. Similar initial successes have been observed in
Egypt, where new barley varieties have out-yielded the local varieties by between 30% and over 100% in four villages, and in
Yemen, where two varieties of barley and two of lentil have been adopted by farmers.
References
Ceccarelli, S., S. Grando, M. Singh, et al. 2003. A methodological study on participatory barley breeding. II. Response to selection.
Euphytica 133:185–200.