Implementing Agency:
Department For International Development (NRRD)

Managing Institute:
Centre for Arid Zone Studies (CAZS - University of Wales, Bangor)

Contractor:
LI-BIRD

Project Code: R6636 690-565-005	Start Date: 01/04/1996	End Date: 31/03/1997
Commitment: £7,384	Status: Completed	Type of Funding: Bilateral - TDR

Project Background:
There are few well-documented examples of participatory plant breeding (PPB), and until participatory methods can be demonstrated to work their wider adoption will be constrained.

A successful PPB programme has been carried out at the Lumle Agricultural Research Centre (LARC) but only three years of data are available. More date will provide more convincing proof of the value of PPB, and this proposal is to measure the impact of PPB programme for a further year. An additional years' data is particularly valuable because adoption of varieties by farmers will be much higher if the logarithmic growth rates of varietal coverage have continued. The domains of the participatory cultivars will be examined to see how location-specific are the products of PPB.

Particular problems addressed by the project are:

Below optimal use of improved germplasm by farmers, lack of improved rice germplasm for high altitude areas and drudgery by women in dehulling brown rice as now white varities are available.

Project Objectives:
Validation of participatory plant breeding methods for hillside system.

Intended Outputs:
To demonstrate the value of participatory breeding methods and the materials produced by them.

To measure the impact of PPB on farmer's livelihoods and crop biodiversity by quantifying varietal spread of farmer-preferred varieties produced by PPB.

To provide a basket choice to farmers in neighbouring villages by distributing farmer-preferred varieties produced by the PPB programme.

To better estimate the domains of the cultivars produced by PPB.