Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
11.2.2
CROISEMENTS DU ROC
On the initiative of a farmer active in the RSP, a participatory plant breed-
ing project was started in 2005 with researchers from INRA le Moulon.
Crosses were made on his farm between different wheat landraces and
more recent varieties of interest. The first (F1) and second (F2) genera-
tions of progeny of 90 different families (one family is derived from each
cross) were also evaluated on his farm in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008. Se-
lections were made of individual spikes in several of the F2 families. Seed
of these spikes was bulked for each family and evaluated side-by-side in
the F3 generation with the corresponding unselected bulk at Moulon in
2008-2009. The protocol for plant and spike measurements was the same
as that of the FSO project. Analysis was done using an ANOVA model: Y
= u + rep + family + version(family) + error for the trial at le Moulon; tests
between the selected and non-selected versions within each family were
made with Tukeys multiple comparison procedure.
F2 families were harvested in bulk in 2008 on-farm and seed was dis-
tributed to 14 additional farmers in the autumn of 2008 for the evaluation
of the F3 generation on their farms. Management of on-farm trials was the
responsibility of the farmers, and researchers made phenotypic measure-
ments on 25 plants and spikes per F3 family on each farm at maturity.
This was the fi rst year of diffusion of progeny from these crosses within
the farmer seed network, and was an experimental year to see if farmers
were interested and how the network could enhance the use of results from
these types of trials. In the 2009-2010 year, all but two farmers continued
their populations for the F4 generation using seed they harvested from F3
plants in 2009, and an additional 12 farmers joined the project, primarily
cultivating F3 populations from the remaining seed of the 2008 harvest. In
addition to on-farm evaluation, crosses were made in the spring of 2010
and 2011 to start new populations. These crosses were made between par-
ents chosen by farmers for their particular environments, and a workshop
on creating new populations through crossing different varieties was held
at le Moulon in February 2010.
In 2010-2011, the on-farm trials have been substantially modifi ed to
better meet the needs of scientists and farmers. Trials are now structured
into regional platforms with surrounding satellite trials where each farmer
