The need for farmer participation in research and development is now well recognized, and there can be few better examples of the benefits of a participatory approach than ICARDA's farmer participatory barley breeding program. After all, farmers have been breeding better crop plants since agriculture began.

Farmers know best-why participation works

Farmers have been selecting better barley for millennia. In fact, virtually every important crop plant was domesticated by farmers who recognized better-performing plants and saved their seed for future sowing. Today, drought-tolerant barley lines developed by ICARDA, using a participatory approach, are proof that farmers still have an important role to play in plant selection.
     Some 300 farmers are involved in ICARDA's barley research program in Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. They select, right on their own farms, from among the hundreds of breeding lines produced by ICARDA every year.
     Their efforts in cooperation with ICARDA will help ensure livelihood and nutrition for some of the poorest people in the world's dry areas, where barley is a critically important food and feed crop.

Drought-tolerant barley lines for income security

In general, it takes at least 200 mm of rainfall to grow a barley crop in non-irrigated areas, but 'farmer researchers' in Syria have produced crops on much less using lines developed by ICARDA. In some locations, farmers managed to harvest a crop from just 87 mm of rain! Yield was measured in kilograms, not tonnes, but in such years of drought, a harvest of barley grain and stubble for livestock can mean the difference between survival and selling off livestock or a piece of the family farm.

Beyond subsistence agriculture

The northwest coast of Egypt is another place where low and erratic rainfall makes rural life precarious. There, the risk of drought discourages farmers from investing in fertilizer. The result is low yields, even in good years. ICARDA researchers figured if farmers had a barley variety they could rely on, then they might be willing to invest in basic inputs.
     Host farmers and local expert farmers,' chosen by their neighbors, selected 28 promising barley populations from 53 developed by ICARDA. Some of the lines selected by the farmers out-yielded the local favorite lines by 30-300%.
      Had  the selections been made on an experiment station, the results could have been much different. In a traditional breeding program, crosses are made to generate variability, and breeders search through the resulting populations for a few outstanding lines that

great many potentially useful lines are passed over and discarded early in the selection process. Participatory breeding involves farmers from diverse locations in the initial stages of selection, when genetic variability is still virtually untapped. Selections reflect farmers' perceived needs, and take advantage of farmers' extensive knowledge of the crop and local environment.
     The result is lines better adapted to farm conditions, greater diversity in cropped varieties, and greater utilization of the genetic potential generated by breeders.

Better barley comes with sense of ownership
 
Breeders have been working for more than 100 years to improve barley productivity in Tunisia. Yet farmers stick to their traditional varieties, which are well suited to the harsh, dry conditions so different from the breeders' experiment station. Even lines that seem to suit farmers' needs have gained little acceptance.
     ICARDA felt it could help by implementing a program of decentralized breeding and selection, with farmers as key collaborators. The result is 'Momtaz,' a six-row barley variety similar to the ones favored by local farmers, but with much better yield potential in dry conditions. In dry years, the variety yields 14-21% higher than the check varieties, and in semi-dry seasons farmers can expect 30% higher yield than the best checks.
     Aside from its improved adaptability and yield potential, 'Momtaz' enjoys the ready acceptance of Tunisian farmers. After all, it's their variety.

New responsibilities for professional plant breeders

Will farmers put breeders out of work? No. Farmer participation is not a substitute for the critical work done by professional breeders. Consider the case of the Russian wheat aphid. ICARDA researchers have made good progress developing barley plant resistance, which is the only practical way for cash-poor farmers to withstand the devastating pest.

     The Center's search for sources of resistance began in 1997. Since then five sources of resistance have been used in crosses with six varieties grown in North Africa, from which 71 resistant lines were selected at ICARDA's research farm in northern Syria. These lines have been sent to Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia for further evaluation under local conditions.
     Only an international institute with trained breeders, access to a diverse collection of germplasm, and access to advanced tools, including biotechnology, could conduct such a multinational, multifaceted program. If anything, professional breeders have additional roles to play organizing farmer cooperators and making the most of farmers' picks in as many locations as possible.

ICARDA's barley improvement program

Barley is grown on 70 million ha worldwide, more than half in developing countries. As part of its global mandate, ICARDA works to increase the productivity of barley through the development and adoption of improved varieties in six regions: Near East and West Asia; North Africa; East Africa and Yemen; Central Asia and the Caucasus; Far East; and Central and Latin America.
     The major role of ICARDA's barley breeders is to generate useful genetic variability through targeted crosses, to distribute segregating populations, and to coordinate the analysis and utilization of related data. The role of the national agricultural research system breeders, in turn, is to identify useful parental material, such as sources of disease resistance, to design suitable crosses, and to select useful lines in target environments.
     The project has released more than 100 cultivars. The average adoption level is 14% and the estimated annual benefit per adopted cultivar ranges from US$1.1 million to US$39.5 million.