Seed Systems Research Abstracts from the Biotechnology, Breeding and Seed Systems Conference

Maize variety testing through the mother and baby design

M.S. Mwala, J. de Meyer & M. Banziger

Formal plant breeding (FPB) has been the main strategy in variety development with noted achievements over the past. Recently, however, another strategy, participatory plant breeding (PPB), has been adopted and this has proved to have added value the identification of appropriate varieties for specific farmer needs and agro-ecological conditions. Researchers in different parts of the world have used different versions of the strategy. The Southern African Drought and Low Soil Fertility Project (SADLF), which is an effort by the national maize breeding programs of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and CIMMYT, adopted the “Mother-Baby Trial”, methodology for participatory variety selection. Mother-Baby Trials are sets of experiments grown in and by farming communities. For each researcher-managed “Mother Trial”, there are as many as six to twelve corresponding farmer-managed “Baby Trials”. The Mother Trial evaluates a set of promising maize cultivars under both recommended and farmer-representative management conditions, thus demonstrating both differences between varieties and the effect of improved management practices. The Mother Trial is located in the center of a farming community, wherever the community feels is the best, which could be at a secondary school, with a progressive farmer, or at a research station. A local counterpart, who could be an agricultural teacher, an extension officer, a local researcher or an NGO staff manages the trials. The Baby Trials, on the other hand, contain a subset of the cultivars included in the Mother Trial (no more than four) and are planted and managed exclusively by the farmers that host them. A number of advantages have been observed and realized through the use of these trials, which will be presented. Results from trials conducted in the region in 2000 and 2001 have clearly shown that the PPB strategy gave added value, beyond what the FPB could have, in identification of the appropriate varieties for the resource poor farmers.