In the upland farming fields of northern Honduras, smallholder farmers plant dozens and dozens of dry bean varieties every season. Many of these varieties have been developed by Honduran farmers, for Honduran farmers.
One of the most popular bean varieties that are planted in these regions, is a variety called Macuzalito. Macuzalito is a red dry bean, with good yield, moderate earliness and disease tolerance, and excellent flavour and marketability. Macuzalito was developed in 2004, and it was the first variety created through participatory plant breeding in Honduras – a collaborative effort of 53 Honduran farmers and a network of non-profit organizations, and research institutions. Since then, 23 different bean varieties have been developed in collaboration with Honduran farmers.
In Canada, a network of over 75 growers are following in the footsteps of these Honduran farmers and trying to breed new varieties of wheat, oats, potatoes, peppers, and other vegetables for regional, organic farming conditions. These farmers are part of two national organic participatory plant breeding (PPB) programs supported by The Bauta family initiative on Canadian Seed Security (a program of Seedchange), the University of Manitoba, and the University of British Columbia. Focusing on crops that are important for Canadian food security, and those that can feasibly be grown for seed in Canada, the project focuses on wheat, oats, potatoes, bell peppers, and carrots, with plans to expand to more crops in the future.
PPB is an established international methodology that puts farmers in the driver’s seat for variety development. The principles underpinning PPB are simple: i) farmers should lead the seed selection and development process, and ii) these processes should happen on farms to replicate the conditions in which these seeds will be grown.
However, PPB goes beyond the creation of new varieties for organic farms. It gives organic farmers more control and knowledge of the variety development process.
One of the farmers involved in the program in Manitoba for several years shared the following comment through a survey conducted in 2015: “I think that I am a better selector of plants and seeds. But what I think is really amazing is that there is support for farmers to select for traits that will benefit their own specific farm. Support for specificity of place is the direction in the future – the exact opposite of the current
system that uses very few seed varieties regardless of place.”
Investing in Canadian PPB is an investment in Canadian farmers, and it is a variety development model the Canadian agricultural community should embrace. This research is not only contributing to the development of varieties that are more suitable to organic systems, but also those that are more adaptive to the challenges of climate change.
Early evaluations of our program’s farmer-selected wheat lines show that, when tested under organic management systems, the lines show strong early vigour, disease resistance, more micronutrients, and competitive yield performance when compared to conventionally bred cultivars.
Our collaborative efforts engage farmers as early-generation plant breeders and builds on-farm research capacity. Farmer consultations determine the parent lines for crosses of each crop. Seed from the resulting crop is distributed to farms across the country to be selected by farmers, according to their priorities and needs.
The process of seed selection by farmers is backed by a research and facilitation team at the University of Manitoba, the University of British Columbia, and The Bauta Family initiative, who provide coordination, seed distribution and cleaning, and agronomic support to participating farmers. In turn, the researchers gain valuable insights into regional plant breeding priorities for farmers. The performance of farmer-selected lines can then be studied in controlled environments, where comparisons to commercial varieties are carried out.
Farmers have always been the original plant breeders; however, the activity of plant breeding has shifted away from farmers over the past several decades. While this innovative program is novel in Canada, it is part of a robust PPB tradition of farmer-researcher partnerships all over the world. Farmers and researchers pioneered PPB in economically developing countries to help meet the needs of farmers cultivating land that differs significantly from the ideal conditions found on research stations, where many varieties are developed.
Since 2013, The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security has been bringing together the best of what works from Seedchange’s international partners such as PPB programs in Honduras and Nepal. With the cutting edge expertise of Canadian researchers and farmers, PPB is a promising research model for the future of Canadian agriculture.
The work is supported by The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security (a program of Seedchange) and Agriculture and Agri-food Canada’s Canadian Agricultural Partnerships Program. Focusing on crops that are important for Canadian food security and those that can feasibly be grown for seed in Canada, the project focuses on wheat, oats, potatoes through the University of Manitoba, and bell peppers, carrots, and other vegetables through the University of British Columbia.
Farmers who wish to be involved in this work, or to find out more about it, can contact the regional coordinator for The Bauta Family Initiative in their area. Staff contacts can be found online at www.seedsecurity.ca/team.
(OSC3) Originally published in Organic Science Canada magazine, Issue #2, Spring 2020
