Progress in participatory plant breeding of common beans in Cuba. Participatory Plant Breeding activities were performed with the support of farmers from both San Antonio de los Baños Municipality in Habana province and La Palma community in Pinar del Río province between 2001 and 2004. In the diagnosis phase, it was observed that more than 80 % of farmers did not use the seeds provided by the official system in the target areas of the project. Therefore, the varieties obtained by conventional breeding programs did not reach most farmers. An alternative mechanism was developed to introduce genetic diversity to several localities, with the objective of facilitating seed transfer from research institutions to the farmer and viceversa. After conducting diversity fairs, rural experimentation will follow in farms and cooperatives, developing a broad experimental network difficult to achieve by any breeding program that does not consider producer's participation. Rural experimentation, increases in diversity due to the use of greater number of varieties, and larger proportion of areas dedicated to the cultivation of these species resulted in the improvement of the wellbeing of the farmers and their families.

El frijol común (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) forma parte de la dieta básica de la población cubana y constituye la fuente de la quinta parte de las proteínas totales consumidas en Cuba. Se estima que en este país se produjeron 119.800 toneladas de frijol en el año 2002, lo que constituyó más de la mitad de la demanda nacional. Durante la última década, la producción de frijol en Cuba, estuvo a cargo del sector agrícola no estatal,