Participatory evaluation guides the development and selection of farmers’ preferred rice varieties for salt- and flood-affected coastal deltas of South and Southeast Asia

Abstract

Rice is the staple food and provides livelihood for smallholder farmers in the coastal delta regions of South and Southeast Asia. However, its productivity is often low because of several abiotic stresses including high soil salinity and waterlogging during the wet (monsoon) season and high soil and water salinity during the dry season. Development and dissemination of suitable rice varieties tolerant of these multiple stresses encountered in coastal zones are of prime importance for increasing and stabilizing rice productivity, however adoption of new varieties has been slow in this region. Here we implemented participatory varietal selection (PVS) processes to identify and understand smallholder farmers’ criteria for selection and adoption of new rice varieties in coastal zones. New breeding lines together with released rice varieties were evaluated in on-station and on-farm trials (researcher-managed) during the wet and dry seasons of 2008–2014 in the Indian Sundarbans region. Significant correlations between preferences of male and female farmers in most trials indicated that both groups have similar criteria for selection of rice varieties. However, farmers’ preference criteria were different from researchers’ criteria. Grain yield was important, but not the sole reason for variety selection by farmers. Several other factors also governed preferences and were strikingly different when compared across wet and dry seasons. For the wet season, farmers preferred tall (140–170 cm), long duration (160–170 d), lodging resistant and high yielding rice varieties because these traits are required in lowlands where water stagnates in the field for about four months (July to October). For the dry season, farmers’ preferences were for high yielding, salt tolerant, early maturing (115–130 d) varieties with long slender grains and good quality for better market value. Pest and disease resistance was important in both seasons but did not rank high. When farmers ranked the two most preferred varieties, the ranking order was sometimes variable between locations and years, but when the top four varieties that consistently ranked high were considered, the variability was low. This indicates that at least 3–4 of the best-performing entries should be considered in succeeding multi-location and multi-year trials, thereby increasing the chances that the most stable varieties are selected. These findings will help improve breeding programs by providing information on critical traits. Selected varieties through PVS are also more likely to be adopted by farmers and will ensure higher and more stable productivity in the salt- and flood-affected coastal deltas of South and Southeast Asia.

Wild Vigna Legumes: Farmers’ Perceptions, Preferences, and Prospective Uses for Human Exploitation

“…Although this could be influenced by the number of accessions that reached an appreciable growth level by the selection period, the selection should depend on other parameters such as farmers' gender (G 2 = 130.813, df = 73, p < 0.000), farming experience (G 2 = 669.196, df = 511, p < 0.000), and location (G 2 = 1110.606, df = 73, p < 0.000), as confirmed by the X 2 test. In a similar study, significant correlations between preferences of male and female farmers in an on-farm trial indicated that both groups have similar criteria for the selection of rice varieties in India [29]. Experiments investigating farmers' knowledge about unknown or wild food crops are lacking or almost non-existent in the literature [12].…”

Genome Wide Association Study to Identify the Genetic Base of Smallholder Farmer Preferences of Durum Wheat Traits

“…For these reasons, smallholder farmers are knowledgeable of traits concerning environmental adaptability such as resistance to drought, frost, pests, and diseases (Asrat et al, 2010 ), as well as of agro-morphological traits such as number of spikes and seeds produced (Elmyhun and Mekonen, 2016 ). The varietal evaluation given by farmers may not overlap to that of breeders (Burman et al, in press ). In some cases, preferred traits can differ among locations and gender groups: women are often more concerned with filling the food security gap and may have a preference for cooking related traits, whereas men are more concerned with field problems and market demand and tend to prefer traits more related with yield stability and productivity (Assefa et al, 2014 ; Kolech et al, 2015 ).…”

Farmer participatory research in agricultural extension programs: A case study of fertilizer management in tropical rice

“…A number of researchers have discussed efficient nutrient management for tropical rice farmers (Buresh et al, 2019;Sharma et al, 2019). However, the slow progress in farmer adoption of management regimes recommended by researchers indicates that improving researcher understanding of farmer perceptions of crop growth will be essential for the success of agricultural extension activities (Burman et al, 2018). To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to show that farmers in the tropics have their own criteria for rice growth under nutrient management.…”

“…In the development of SSNM guidelines, researchers did not consider the importance of crop diagnosis for farmers (Buresh et al, 2019;Sharma et al, 2019). However, knowledge transfer requires close communication between researchers and farmers, which means that researchers must learn to consider farmer perspectives (Burman et al, 2018). We suggest that one way to improve farmer adoption of RM recommendations would be to provide the information farmers are most concerned about, which relates to achieving standard growth characteristics at the key phenological stages as a result of efficient nutrient management.…”

“…Changes in agricultural extension practices have also occurred during recent decades. The importance of farmer-participatory research has been increasingly recognized, including activities such as participatory varietal selection in plant breeding (Burman et al, 2018) and offering farmer field schools (i.e., on-farm training in agronomy) (David and Asamoah, 2011). The farmer field school was first proposed during the 1980s, with the goal of promoting active learning about crop health by farmers (Van den Berg and Jiggins, 2007).…”