Abstract
The article describes the institutionalization of farmer participatory research and plant breeding that has occurred in Honduras over the past 22 years and demonstrates how this approach can offer a positive response to climate change and sustainable agricultural development. In Honduras, participatory plant breeding (PPB) involves the collaboration of farmer researchers organized in local agricultural research committees (CIALs), plant breeders, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). While earlier debates often questioned the role of farmers in agricultural research, particularly the synergistic effect of this role with regard to scientific research, little empirical evidence was provided to settle this debate. Nor was the contextualization of farmer research adequately addressed. The article responds to calls for studies that detail what actually happens in development practice. The article provides detailed cases of farmer–NGO–scientist collaboration in the development of new bean varieties in Honduras. The documented cases of PPB-generated bean varieties demonstrate how and why this collaboration has produced synergies for scientific research and positive benefits for poor farmers in the Honduras context. Very high adoption rates of PPB varieties compared to unimproved local and conventional scientist-developed varieties show the importance of this approach for regions of the world where agro-biodiversity is high and agricultural research budgets are inadequate to address this diversity. PPB provides a means to improving food security in poor and agro-biodiverse countries, such as Honduras. Nevertheless, to incentivize farmers to engage in PPB research over the long term, seed regulatory systems must allow for the development of small seed enterprise. Research support must also be long term. PPB in Honduras has been successful because donor support to both scientists and NGOs for farmer participatory research has been sustained allowing for trusting partnerships to evolve between the different players.
Highlights
The article describes the institutionalization of farmer participatory research and plant breeding that has occurred in Honduras over the past 22 years and demonstrates how this approach can offer a positive response to climate change and sustainable agricultural development
We have argued that the context for this can be linked to the low funding envelope allocated to public agricultural research associated with structural adjustment and the resulting termination of public extension services after 1990, in conjunction with the high degree of agro-biodiversity characteristic of the Honduran landscape
Given the constraints on public research, farmers, Nongovernmental organizations (NGO) partners and scientists in Honduras have taken the opportunity to join forces over the past 20-year period to create an innovative agricultural research system—a system that produces recognized synergies for scientific research and that demonstrably serves the needs of the country’s poorest farmers. This opportunity has been enabled by the formal research skills of Local agricultural research committees (CIAL) members, and the generation of research results that are respected by the scientific community
Summary
The article describes the institutionalization of farmer participatory research and plant breeding that has occurred in Honduras over the past 22 years and demonstrates how this approach can offer a positive response to climate change and sustainable agricultural development. As researchers have previously noted, sustainable solutions generally involve processes that are adaptable to moving targets, rather than to specific ends or fixes, such as new technologies or policies [1, 2, 7]. We provide detailed case study material from Honduras where more than 20 years of institutional support for research conducted by hillside farmers has served, it will be argued, to effectively position local farmers, non-governmental, and scientific institutions, at the forefront of innovation for climate change adaptation. By documenting the experiences of hillside farmers in research, the article responds to calls for studies that detail what happens in development practice [12], in the field of participatory development where past claims of success have been much greater than the evidence to support them [13]
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