Participatory Plant Breeding: The Attractive Way to Breed for Marginal Farmers

Participatory plant breeding originated in the early 1980s with a tendency to promote the concept of participatory research, in response to criticisms of the failure of the post-green revolution, on-station-based research to address the needs of poor farmers in the developing countries. The program can be categories as consultative and collaborative, based on crop and availability of resources; involves scientists, farmers, others, such as consumers, extension worker, supplier, industry, and rural co-operatives. The participatory plant breeding approach represents an alternative aimed to improve local adaptation breeding, to promote genetic diversity, to empower farmers and other rural communities. The key benefit of participatory breeding is that appropriate cultivars are reached in the farmers’ field in a shortened amount of time with enhanced the plant genetic diversity and thereby improves agricultural sustainability.