On-Farm Experimentation to transform global agriculture

Abstract

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Return to Agrobiodiversity: Participatory Plant Breeding

“…One recent criticism addressed the small plot size commonly used in on-farm research as the main reason why participatory research failed to materialize as standard practice, preventing the effective integration of science-based and farmers-based knowledge [41]. In our experience, and with specific reference to PPB, plot size has been one of the organizational issues negotiated with farmers; it varied widely depending on the crop, on the plant breeding stage, on the country, on average farm size and on the need to reach farmers regardless of their farm size [42].…”

Potential of Meta-Omics to Provide Modern Microbial Indicators for Monitoring Soil Quality and Securing Food Production

“…The next step will be to investigate to what extent integrating soil microbiological quality may improve the sustainability of the food production models, with projects extending this approach to other products and going further up the food value chain. To answer this question, an approach similar to the Living-lab appeared to be most promising and relevant, due to its numerous advantages for innovation in agriculture ( Lacoste et al, 2022 ).…”

Incorporating male sterility increases hybrid maize yield in low input African farming systems

“…Technology development centered in experimental research stations may lead to products that fail to perform in the target environment. Recognizing this and the need to co-develop technological solutions with farmers is leading to an increased interest to move testing on farm 18 , 19 . Although FNP hybrids have demonstrated yield benefits in limited testing in the US, yield levels of these trials (6.3–8.1 Mg ha −1 ) were 3–4 times higher than those typically found in farmers’ fields in SSA.…”