Asia
Knowledge Sharing: A Two Way Street
Working with farmers can be richly rewarding – and sometimes yield quite unexpected results, too. That is what Anja Christinck and Kirsten vom Brocke, Special Project Scientists from ICRISAT discovered when they lived alongside millet farmers in Rajasthan, along the harsh fringe of the Thar Desert in northwestern India. Along this desolate margin only millet, the ultra stress-tolerant cereal, can withstand the heat and drought and produce a good crop without irrigation.
Anja and
Kirsten were conducting a study on how farmers manage their seed stocks, and how
researchers can 
use this knowledge to breed
varieties that farmers will readily accept. As part of their study, they organized a
workshop where all the participants were farmers. Women had been especially invited
because of their prominent role in selecting and maintaining seed, and their deep
knowledge of millet. For example, Hira Bai, a woman farmer from the village Aagolai, could
immediately spot her own millet population out of 81 experimental plots in the field
trials!
The farmers were
invited to evaluate field trials in which their millet populations were grown alongside
commercial varieties and breeding lines from ICRISAT. These farmers had earlier taken part
in participatory breeding trials coordinated by ICRISAT in collaboration with the Indian
national research organizations, such as ICAR’s Central Arid Zone Research Institute,
Rajasthan Agricultural University, and Rajasthan Department of Watershed Development, as
well as NGOs.
During these trials, the farmers received seeds of ICRISAT breeding lines for testing. Most of the farmers had included this material into their own seed stocks, and in some cases they had carefully selected plant types from those co-mingled stocks over the years. “In this way, the farmers had attempted to improve their own traditional landrace populations – or perhaps they were improving the ICRISAT material,” remarked Kirsten.
In the workshop, the farmers praised their landrace (locally known as desi )
populations, which they said had all the desirable qualities except the high yield
potential exhibited by the modern varieties under good rainfall conditions. Some of the
farmers described desi millets as perfectly adapted to erratic rainfall conditions,
drought, and local soils. They also thought that it was good for both food and fodder and
that it was more nutritious and tasty than the commercially available varieties.
“Only by eating this desi have we grown up to what we are today,” one
woman proudly exclaimed.
One of the interesting findings of the study was that farmers and ICRISAT scientists had
independently bred towards similar plant types. “These plant types are adapted to a
wide range of conditions yet maintain the farmers’ quality requirements, while
providing higher yields than the original landrace under favorable conditions,”
observed Anja and Kirsten.
Learning from this experience, ICRISAT breeders have widely participatory breeding methods
across all crops, involving farmers in key stages of plant evaluation and selection. They
have found that sharing ideas with farmers is a win-win exercise for everyone involved.
