Participatory crop improvement and formal release of Jethobudho rice landrace in Nepal

This study documents an eight-year process of improvement for market identified traits of the Jethobudho rice landrace. The enhanced landrace ‘‘Pokhareli Jethobudho’’ is the first Nepalese nationally released bulk variety of traditional high-quality aromatic rice improved through participatory plant breeding. The article provides details of the study including: assessing and selecting populations for selected traits; community-based seed production and marketing; molecular evaluation; statistical analysis, and discussion of breeding goals for participatory plant breeding. Participatory crop improvement can allow farmers to benefit from local resources while ensuring genetic diversity within agricultural production systems.