Improved Livelihoods, Genetic Diversity and Farmer Participation: A Strategy for Rice Breeding in Rainfed Areas of India

Abstract

S U M M A R YThe present structure of plant breeding and seed multiplication in India is highly centralized. Furthermore, only a small number of new varieties is officially released each year. The system therefore appears inappropriate for the requirements of the large proportion of Indian farmers located in risk-prone and highly diverse environments. An alternative strategy is described whose central feature is close matching of the characteristics of farmers' traditional rice varieties with those of advanced breeders' lines. A selection from these lines is then distributed in small quantities for on-farm trials managed by farmers themselves. If the success of these initial efforts is to be sustained, a more decentralized approach to breeding and multiplication will be necessary.D. M. Maurya, A. Bottrall y J. Farrington: Sustentos mejorados, diversidad genetica y participation del agricultor: Una estrategia para la selection de arroz en zonas de secano de la India. R E S U M E NLa estructura actual de la fitotecnica y multiplicacion de semillas en la India esta sumamente centralizada. Es mas, cada ano se lanzan oficialmente solo un numero reducido de variedades nuevas. El sistema parece por lo tanto ser inapropiado para los requisitos de la gran proportion de agricultores hindues situados en entornos propensos al riesgo y muy diversos. Se describe una estrategia alternativa, cuya caracteri'stica central es la combination estrecha de las caracteri'sticas de las variedades tradicionales de arroz del agricultor con las de las li'neas avanzadas de los fitotecnicos. Se distribuye una selection de estas li'neas en peguenas cantidades para ensayos en la granja manejados por los mismos agricultores. Si el exito de estos esfuerzos iniciales ha de continuar, hara falta un enfoque mas decentralizado de la fitotecnica y multiplicacion.

Inter – Relationship and Path Analysis in F2 Generation of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) under Submergence

“…unscheduled submergence of the rice crop (Sarkar et al, 2006, Maurya et al, 1988. Nearly 25% of the world's rice is cultivated in the rainfed lowland ecosystem which accounts for only 17% of the global rice supply (Mohanty et al, 2000).…”

A Revolution Whose Time Has Come? The Win-Win of Quantitative Participatory Approaches and Methods

“…This has become increasingly evident and recognised during the past three decades. Not least this has been through the Farmer Participatory Research (FPR) of the late 1980s and early 90s (see for example Biggs 1988;Farrington and Martin 1988;Sumberg and Okali 1989;Ashby 1990), farmer field schools and integrated pest management (Dilts 2001;Pontius et al 2002), and most notably participatory seed breeding (Maurya et al 1988;Witcombe et al 1996;Stirling and Witcombe 2004;Witcombe et al 2005 (Drinkwater 1993;Freudenberger 1995;Manoharan et al 1993), pile sorting (proportional piling) (Watson 1994;Eldridge 2001;Catley et al 2008) and aggregating from focus groups (Swift and Umar 1991;ActionAid 1992). These methods were also used with individual farmers as in a Save the Children Fund study of farmers' adaptations to drought in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe (Eldridge 1995(Eldridge , 1998 (Kagugube et al 2007).…”

Farmer participatory varietal selection in pearl millet: Experience across some states of Northern Nigeria

“…Farmer participation in the breeding of crop varieties for low-resource farmers is regarded by some as necessary to help ensure acceptance and eventual adoption (Franzel et al, 1995;Gyawali et al, 2007;Maurya et al, 1988;Mekbib, 2006;Prain et al, 1992).…”