Farmers Keep Breeders |
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on Target in South Asia
When it comes to wheat, women farmers around Bankatti in the southern lowlands of Nepal know what they like: a variety that withstands disease and insect attack, makes good chapatis (flatbread), and produces lots of grain. In contrast, Bankatti men prefer wheats that tolerate heat and produce large, white grain that does not shatter when harvested. |
Ten men and ten women farmers voiced those opinions during a participatory variety selection exercise in their village. Outcomes of similar events organized by researchers from CIMMYT and national programs (in this case, the Nepal Agricultural Research Council) in other villages of northern Pakistan, northeastern India, and Nepal are now guiding breeding research—specifically, the selection of materials to use and crosses to make.
“The preferences of the two groups in Bankatti reflect their roles in the household,” says CIMMYT wheat breeder Guillermo Ortiz-Ferrara, who is leading this effort. “Women farmers store the grain and make the bread, while the men, who sell the surplus grain, are more concerned with ‘filling the sacks.’“
One choice of both males and females in several villages of Nepal was the recently released variety BL-1473.They liked its ability to stand up under a full head of grain, the large, white grains it produces, its abundant straw yield, and its rapid growth. As a result, Nepal’s public seed enterprise will hasten production of BL-1473, in hopes of farmers being able to sow it next crop cycle. Researchers have provided foundation seed of BL-1473 for 80 farmers in Nepal’s hill area who will increase the seed and sell it to peers.
Farmers in Sultanabad, Gilgit District, in the northern hill region of Pakistan, consistently preferred three varieties that possess good resistance to the fungal diseases known as rust and yielded 30–40% more grain than Suneen, the popular but disease-prone local variety. Two of the three new varieties also produced more straw than Suneen. Seed of these varieties will be multiplied for distribution to as many farmers as possible. Next season scientists from the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), the Agha Khan Rural Support Program, and CIMMYT will use participatory selection to hasten adoption of new cultivars there.
| “When we started doing participatory selection in the hills of Nepal, we found that 90% of the wheat was of an obsolete variety that was very susceptible to diseases.” |
Working Where Help is Most Needed
Wheat production is an economic mainstay in the
eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains but lags far behind its potential: average yields are
only half those of wheat in the Punjab of India, for example. The low productivity will simply not meet the
demand of the region’s populace, which is growing by 2.2% each year. For the last three crop
seasons, Ortiz-Ferrara and Etienne Duveiller, CIMMYT wheat pathologist in South
Asia, have been working with farmers in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains to test and select more
productive wheat varieties and agronomic practices that conserve resources.
“When we started doing participatory selection in the hills of Nepal, we found that 90% of the wheat was of an obsolete variety that was very susceptible to diseases,” says Duveiller. “Newer,disease resistant varieties were available but accounted for only 10% of the wheat. Farmers hadn’t accepted them, either, because they didn’t meet their needs, they hadn’t heard of them or, if they had, there wasn’t enough seed. This is typical of the obstacles keeping new varieties from reaching farmers in this region.” Participatory selection has proven an effective way to clear such hurdles. Varieties and practices developed in tandem with farmers are more likely to meet their needs and quickly become familiar to them. Follow-up research and seed production are keyed to farmers’ demands.
In addition to increasing productivity each season, switching to new varieties reduces the overall risk of disease epidemics, inasmuch as it expands the range of varieties sown. A diverse patchwork of varieties confounds a disease’s chances of ruining an entire region’s crop. Use of single varieties over large areas has been a problem in South Asia, causing multi-million dollar losses in Pakistan in the early 1990s, when a stripe rust epidemic destroyed the wheat crop (see related story: "A Global Alliance to Stop Epidemic in Their Tracks").
Zero-Tillage on the Rise
As is occurring elsewhere in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, participatory research has helped farmers in the east overcome initial reservations about sowing wheat directly into rice stubble with no tillage (see: "Zero-Tillage: Averting Dry Wells and Depleted Soils in South Asia"), and they are now buying the requisite zero-tillage planters. With support from the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, Banaras Hindu University, CIMMYT, and other organizations, many rice-wheat farmers in eastern Uttar Pradesh are using the improved wheat variety HUW-468 and resource-conserving practices like zero-tillage to sow earlier, save on diesel fuel, and increase yields. Ramjiv, a typical rice-wheat farmer in the region, has thus boosted his wheat harvests from a mere half ton to four tons per hectare. A large-scale effort involving extension agencies and local NGOs is helping farmers to test and adopt these technologies.
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For more information: Guillermo Ortiz-Ferrara (oferrara@mos.com.np) Etienne Duveiller (eduve@mos.com.np) |
©
CIMMYT
October 2001