Mahmoud Gomaa1, Fathy Radwan1, Naiim Moselhy2, Ashraf El-Sadek2*, SafwatAbdelkader2
- 1.Plant Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture (Saba basha) ,Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
- 2.Plant Production Department, Ecology and Dryland Cultivation Division. Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt
The
participatory plant breeding (PPB) approach, in which the selection
process is performed in the farmers’ fields, is not a widely known
strategy in Egyptian agriculture. The objective of this study is to
assess the efficiency of farmers’, researchers’ and engineers’ selection
in a participatory plant breeding program.
Two
field experiments have been conducted during 2010/2011 and 2011/2012
seasons to evaluate the performance of six genotypes under rainfed
conditions in four locations (Ras El Hekma, Matrouh, El Neguilla and
Barrani) in the North Western Coastal Zone of Egypt. For all of the
studied locations, the selectors gave the highest score at the Matrouh
location in the first season; however, two out of the three selectors
(farmers and engineers) gave the highest score at the Barrani location
in the second season. Overall, the ICA1 genotype was the one most liked
by farmers and researchers in both of the growing seasons and by the
engineers in the second season only because of its high yield potential.
The results show that the farmers in all the studied locations were as
efficient, or more efficient, than the researchers and the engineers in
selecting high yielding genotypes. This was evident by the high positive
correlation between the farmers’ score and the grain yield at all
locations (r2 > 0.6). The findings illustrate the importance of
farmers’ participation in the breeding programs to increase the
probability and speed of the adoption of new genotypes and maintain the
genetic diversity.
Reference: - Volume 5, Number 3, September 2014 – IJAAR (Page:52-61)
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