Participatory crop improvement in a context of community biodiversity management: Introduction

Participatory crop improvement (PCI) is based on a series of methods in which farmers and scientists collaborate in plant breeding with the basic objective of more effectively addressing the needs of farmers in the marginal areas of developing countries (Almekinders and Elings, 2001; Morris and Bellon, 2004; Ceccarelli et al., 2009). A second and often considered secondary objective is that PCI contributes to the in situ conservation or rather the on-farm management of plant genetic resources (PGR). This objective is based on the assumption that the diversity of farmers’ preferences, and the environments in which they cultivate their crops and varieties, results in the local selection and use of a diversity of materials that is wider than when one or two broadly adapted varieties are introduced and disseminated over large areas (Witcombe et al., 2001; Jarvis et al., 2011). A third objective for PCI, which is expressed by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in particular, is the potential to contribute to the empowerment of farmers in agricultural research and development, and agrobiodiversity management (Almekinders et al., 2006). This third objective relates to policy goals and to the creation of mechanisms through which farmers can express their rights (Andersen, Chapter 6.2) and can share benefits from the use of genetic resources in a fair and equitable manner (Vernooy and Ruiz, Chapter 6.4).