One Billion Hungry by GORDON CONWAY

Author:GORDON CONWAY
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8014-6610-6
Publisher: Cornell University Press

Farmers as Breeders

Farmers usually hold strong, and often insightful, opinions on the qualities of crop types and livestock breeds. New varieties are often adversely compared with traditional varieties, with which they have long familiarity. In northern Thailand, highly commercial farmers grow as a first crop, for their own consumption, many varieties of the traditional sticky (nonglutinous) rice that has been part of their culture for hundreds of years, although later in the year they may plant new varieties for sale.31 These are rarely simply prejudices, however; if asked farmers can identify attributes, compare positive and negative features, and rank varieties placed in front of them.

Scientists at CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical) in Colombia, aware that the varieties they had developed according to research station criteria were often not accepted, asked farmers to rank the grain from bush beans and explain their reasons.32 The resulting rankings were very different from those of the breeders and also revealed a difference in preferences between men and women, the latter choosing smaller, better-flavored grains, while the men preferred the larger grains that command good prices in the market (Table 11.2).

Breeders usually try out their selections in farmers’ fields to determine acceptability. But this has customarily occurred at the end of the breeding process when many of the key decisions have already been made. What has changed in recent years is a greater involvement of farmers earlier in the process, eliciting not only reactions but positive inputs into the determination of breeding goals. The next stage at CIAT was to encourage farmers to take seed away and grow them in trials on their own land. At the end of the trials, they produced overall rankings on both grain quality and the per for mance of the plants. Yield was not the dominant criterion; farmers placed much greater emphasis on marketing, re sis tance to pests and disease, and labor requirements.

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