Farmers, Scientists and Plant Breeding: Integrating Knowledge and Practice

This book reviews "participatory" or "collaborative" plant breeding and presents case studies. It also addresses three key issues: (1) what is the nature of plant breeding knowledge, in theory and practice?; (2) in what ways are farmers' and plant breeders' knowledge similar or different?; and (3) what are the implications for successful plant breeding initiatives? The purpose of this book is to examine the nature of and relationship between the knowledge of farmers and of scientists, and how these can be best integrated in plant breeding. In the past, farmers' knowledge of local biodiversity has often been underutilized, but currently there is an increased recognition of the importance of farmer participation or collaboration. It is divided into two sections, farmer plant breeders and collaboration (5 chapters) and scientific plant breeders and collaboration (6 papers).