PARTAGE DES CONNAISSANCES ENTRE AGRICULTEURS ET CHERCHEURS POUR CREER DES INNOVATIONS VARIETALES. LEÇONS DES PROGRAMMES DE SELECTION PARTICIPATIVE DU SORGHO CONDUITS DANS LA REGION NORD DU NICARAGUA

Overview & Synopsis

Sharing knowledge between farmers and scientists for creating varietal innovations: lessons from participatory sorghum breeding programs managed in the northern region of Nicaragua. The experience of research projects conducted between scientists and farmers show that the confrontation of knowledge and perspectives becomes truly effective when it is based on long term and a cross analysis of the practices of stakeholders to pursuing a common goal. Participatory Plant Breeding lends itself particularly well to this thinking. This communication takes as example the experience of three participatory breeding programs of sorghum managed in the northern region of Nicaragua. These programs have been implemented in situ between local groups of farmer-breeders (FBs), agricultural technician and a professional breeder (PB) to meet specific selection goals, for which the strategy of participatory varietal selection applied in the first phase of the project could not provide the desired varieties. In this work, the FBs have demonstrated their ability to define, gradually and in close interaction with the PB, the plant ideotypes and their effectiveness in developing related highperformance lines. These actions of participatory plant breeding have also contributed to strengthening individual and collective capacities of the involved farmers. An analysis of these experiments highlights the key role of a fine, direct and continuing dialogue between farmers, researcher and technicians in the success of these actions.