Kirsten Vom Brocke

Helping farmers adapt to climate and cropping system change through increased access to sorghum genetic resources adapted to prevalent sorghum cropping systems in Burkina Faso

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a major staple crop of Burkina Faso where farmers continue to cultivate photoperiod-sensitive guinea landraces as part of the strategy to minimize risk and ensure yield stability. In the Boucle du Mouhoun region, however, sorghum farmers appear to have insufficient varietal choice due to cropping systems having shifted towards more intensive cultivation of cotton and maize, and rainfall patterns having decreased over the past decade. In search for new varietal options that can respond to this changing context, researchers decided to give farmers access to ex-situ national collections along with the opportunity to evaluate recent improved varieties. From 2002 to 2007, researchers and farmers worked closely together to implement on-farm testing, including varietal selection trials, crop management and multi-locational trials. Farmers’ choices tend to differ among groups, villages and years, with the exception of four particular landraces: two originating from a collection carried out in the Mouhoun region more than 30 years previous to this research, and two other landraces that came from the dissimilar agro-ecological zones of Burkina Faso. These four were the most commonly selected landraces out of 36 cultivars that covered both improved and landrace varieties. Farmers’ selection criteria were focused on adaptation to agro-climatic conditions as well as specific grain qualities for processing and consumption. The potential usefulness of each variety was verified via multi-locational trials. The paper also shows that wide dissemination of experimental seed, not just across the Mouhoun region but also at a national scale, was largely achieved through collaboration with a strong farmer organisation in conjunction with farmer training programs focused on the on-farm seed production and the commercialisation of this seed.

Agricultural Biodiversity and Rural Systems of Seed Production

To comply with the intensive industrial agriculture model of the Green Revolution, the modern plant breeding combines professionalized variety selection using germplasm conserved ex situ and commercial production of seeds. This model has been widely adopted in the North and very partially in the South because it is based on strong policies options and investments not tailored for developing countries. The Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992 offers an alternate approach to current varietal research with the raise of the concept of “agrobiodiversity” that promotes forms of agriculture able ensuring maintenance of genetic resources for the future. Using actual examples, this chapter illustrates advances in different plant breeding situations for crops predominantly cultivated by family farmers. In forest areas farmers are involved in the processes of creating and disseminating new varieties of coffee and cocoa while maintaining sustainable their agroforestry systems that give them advantages when price in international markets fluctuates. In dry areas with high population growth and weak agricultural production, emphasis is given to participatory breeding methods for traditional food crops which have high adaptation and multiple traditional uses, for example, sorghum in Africa and quinoa in Chile. Finally, this chapter discusses how research, through companion modeling, encourages local seed production systems, and promotes their development by enhancing knowledge exchanges between actors and creating new partnerships.