Chapter 24 - Participatory plant breeding

Abstract

Participatory plant breeding (PPB) was proposed in early 1980s as a socio-technological solution to variety development, such that it is complementary to conventional plant breeding. The main participatory research in plant breeding domain is called PPB or client oriented plant breeding (COPB), and participatory varietal selection (PVS). In participatory research, clients (mainly farmers, but other stakeholders too) are intricately included in all major decisions at all stages of a plant breeding program. The difference between PPB and PVS is the demarcation when client participation starts; specifically, clients are engaged from the first stage of breeding pipeline in PPB, while in PVS farmers are involved in the testing of lines developed by plant breeders.