PARTICIPATORY PLANT BREEDING / CLIENT-ORIENTED BREEDING

Client-oriented breeding, COB, (often referred to as participatory plant breeding, PPB), in which farmers select from segregating material, is a logical extension of participatory varietal selection ( PVS) and is desirable when the possibilities of PVS have been exhausted. In our COB/ PPB programmes we exploit the results of PVS by using identified cultivars as parents of crosses. Weaknesses in cultivars are identified in the PVS programme and they can be crossed with varieties that have complementary traits to eliminate those weaknesses. For example, one can cross a high-yielding but low-grain-quality variety with one with superior grain characteristics.

What we have found is that PVS and PPB get to be used in combination. We start with PVS and that helps to identify parents, then we carry out PPB. As soon as there are products from this COB/PPB, we test them in PVS trials. This can be a continuous process because new varieties, whether introduced or from COB/PPB, are always becoming available that can be tested by PVS.

 Vist the PSP project database and virtual library for further details.

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