taff at the
The
Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society Farmer Breeder Club (FBC) has
not conducted any form of plant breeding (crosses) up to this point. The FBC has worked mainly with evaluation of
existing varieties of cereals and evaluation of experimental germplasm for
possible release by the FBC. Currently, the greatest effort is in the area of
developing a participatory plant-breeding model with partnerships among public
plant breeders, farmers, and end-users.
Return to
Resistance
author Rauol Robinson was invited to keynote the
NPSAS Annual Winter Conference in February of 1999 and to host a workshop on
participatory plant breeding entitled, “Developing a Farmer Breeder Club.” That
event resulted in the formation of the NPSAS
Farm Breeder Club with the vision of developing farmer-based participatory
plant breeding partnerships with public plant breeders. The membership is primarily comprised of
organic producers throughout the Northern Great Plains with most of the members
located in the
The
FBC began its work by asking questions about the crop varieties available to
organic producers and their suitability to organic farming systems. Conversations began with research agronomists
and plant breeders at land grant universities (LGUs)
about what traits are most desirable in organic farming systems. During an open
forum at the NPSAS Annual Winter Conference in February of 2000 between NPSAS
members and land grant university researchers, the farmers presented their
questions and concerns about the crop varieties available to them and their
application to organic agriculture. They
requested a series of organic variety trials and field days to answer some of
the questions. These trials were initiated in the spring of 2001. The trials and the field days also served as
introduction to the vision of the FBC and a point of involvement for additional
plant breeders and researchers. Farmers worked together with plant breeders and
research agronomists in studying traits of interest to organic producers
including growth characteristics, disease and pest resistance, along with yield
and quality traits in replicated trials of wheat, oats, and barley at four
locations, two in Minnesota and two in North Dakota.
The
FBC has been evaluating existing varieties of wheat, oats, and barley in
organic systems with principal investigator, Dr. Pat Carr at the NDSU Dickinson
Research Extension Center,
Field
tours were held at each of these locations with the active participation of
organic farmers to better assess the variety selection criteria of importance
in organic environments. During these events the participants partnered with
plant breeders and research agronomists to evaluate the varieties in replicated
trials. The farmers evaluated the plots and scored them on
what they considered to be the most important characteristics of a good wheat,
oat or barley variety. The scores were averaged to produce the group’s ranking
of the varieties. The plant breeders then looked at the varieties with the
group and discussed their perspective on the merits and weaknesses of each of
the varieties. The farmers in turn responded with comments on criteria that
organic farmers might consider important that were not necessarily selection
criteria on conventional farms. The scores that the varieties were given were
then compared to the previous year’s performance in organic environments.
Farmer
collaborators who hosted the variety trials and field days were encouraged to
take part in whatever level of observation and involvement they desired. This input from the farmer provided the
researchers and plant breeders with an educational opportunity to learn about
an organic farmer’s perspective, observations, selection criteria and concerns.
The two-year NCR-SARE organic variety trials have been completed and the data
has been evaluated and published in a report by Dr. Pat Carr.
NPSAS
partnered with the Tri-Societies (American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science
Society of America, Soil Science Society of America) through a Kellogg funded
initiative, Cultivating Leadership for a
Changing Agriculture, involving CAST and the Institute for Conservation
Leadership, to sponsor a planning retreat on participatory plant breeding in
November, 2004. This retreat determined
the next steps in the development of the FBC participatory plant-breeding (PPB)
model. The FBC received a Bush
Foundation planning grant in August 2005 to continue developing a PPB model
involving partnerships between public plant breeders, land grant universities,
farmers, and end-users (millers, bakers, processors, and distributors).
As
part of this project, the FBC is in the process of developing a working group
to take up the issues of university relations and research foundations at LGUs, specifically material transfer agreements,
intellectual property and public plant breeder involvement in this effort. An additional effort is to foster networks
with other non-government organizations in developing alternative,
participatory plant breeding and seed saving systems to learn from the models
being developed and the experience gained in their development.
Jim
Coors, CSSA President, and Marcelo Carena, NDSU’s corn breeder, hosted a panel discussion titled “Developing
Farmer-Breeder Teams” in November 2005 at the Tri-Societies Annual Meeting in
To
increase the sustainability of PPB, the FBC is collaborating with other PPB
efforts to identify self-funding strategies.
Central to this goal is the involvement of end-users in the planning and
identification of traits to be bred/selected for to enhance the market utility
of the varieties developed.
The