Bonneuil C., Demeulenaere E., 2007. « Une génétique de pair à pair ? L'émergence de la sélection participative », dans F. Charvolin, A. Micoud et L. K. Nyhart, dir. Les sciences citoyennes. Vigilance collective et rapport entre profane et scientifique dans les sciences naturalistes. Ed. de l'Aube, 122-147. thanks and best regards.

The Role Of Informal Farmer-To-Farmer Seed Distribution In Diffusion Of New Barley Varieties In Syria By Aden Aw-Hassan, Ahmed Mazid† And Hisham Salahieh.This study examines the role, structure and effectiveness of informal seed systems in the diffusion of new barley varieties. It uses data collected by tracing farmers who received new barley varieties and other farmers who purchased seeds through farmer-to-farmer seed trade over a period of five years.

Annual Report, Preemptive management of the virulent cassava mosaic disease in Nigeria July 2003 to June 2004 The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture Ibadan, Nigeria © International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), 2005 Ibadan, Nigeria Telephone: (234 2) 241 2626 Fax: (234 2) 241 2221 E-mail: iita@cgiar.org Web: www.iita.org.

Ceccarelli, S. 1996. Positive interpretation of genotype by environment interactions in relation to sustainability and biodiversity. In: M. Cooper and G.L. Hammers (Eds). Plant Adaptation and Crop Improvement. CAB International, Wallingford. U.K., ICRISAT, Andra Pradesh, India, IRRI, Manila, Philippines. pp 467 - 486Genotype by Environment (GxE) interactions are commonly seen as one of the major complications in plant breeding and have been widely discussed, particularly in relation to the choice of the selection environment(s). Here GxE interactions are discussed in relation to plant breeding programs aimed at improving crop production in difficult environments where crop yields are low and crop failures are frequent, mostly due to unfavorable climatic conditions. These environments are highly variable for the specific combinations of abiotic and biotic stresses in any particular cropping season. However, the frequency of low yielding seasons is very high. Because of the high risk of crop failures, inputs such as fertilizers, weed control and pesticides are not used, and often irrigation is not available.Subsistence farmers in these environments have not benefited from the spectacular yield increases obtained by plant breeding in environments which are naturally favorable or could be profitably made favorable by using inputs. Experimental evidence from a number of crops in different geographical areas suggests that when different cultivars or breeding lines are tested in a sufficiently large environmental range, GxE interactions of the crossover type are of common occurrence. However, many breeders still believe that selection should be conducted under optimum conditions for plant growth because these conditions maximize heritability. Consequently, most selection work in developing countries, particularly in the early stages, is done in favorable conditions or in high-input experiment stations. If there are GxE interactions of crossover type, and the selection and the target environments lie at opposite sides of the crossover point, breeding materials developed in favorable conditions or in high-input experiment stations are not likely to perform well in difficult environments. A strategy to maximize yield when GxE interactions are large and repeatable requires the exploitation of specific adaptation through separate plant breeding programs using different methodologies and type of germplasm.International breeding programs can exploit specific adaptation by devolving selection work to national scientists. An example of how this can be achieved is given using the case of the ICARDA barley breeding program in north Africa. Farmers' participation in selection under their own environmental and agronomic conditions is eventually envisaged as a way to maximize specific adaptation, and to speed up the transfer of new cultivars and their adoption.

McDonald, B (ACDI), Gross. R (GTZ) y Haddad. L (IFPRI), United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition and the International Food Policy Research Institute, 48 pages / 2002.The international nutrition community has made great advances in understanding the root causes, effects and magnitude of global malnutrition and human suffering. However much work remains. Members of the international nutrition community recognize the need to better integrate their work with the work of its partners in development. Nutrition: A Foundation For Development is a collection of briefs on the latest research findings in nutrition as they relate to other development sectors. The briefs are designed to facilitate dialogue between nutritionists and other development professionals. They are organized both as a complete set or as stand-alone briefs that make the case for integrating nutrition into the work of the development community.

McDonald, B (ACDI), Gross. R (GTZ) y Haddad. L (IFPRI), del sistema de las Naciones Unidas (SCN) y el Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre Políticas Alimentarias (IFPRI) 48 pages / 2002-.ste conjunto de resúmenes es el resultado del trabajo de varias personas y refleja la colaboración internacional promovida dentro del SCN. Los resúmenes están diseñados para facilitar el diálogo entre los profesionales de la nutrición y del desarrollo. Están organizados de tal manera que puedan tomarse como un paquete de información completo, o como documentos individuales que presentan el argumento a favor de integrar la nutrición dentro del trabajo de la comunidad del desarrollo.

Ceccarelli, S., M. Erskine, S. Grando, and J. Hamblin. 1994. Genotype by Environment Interaction and International Breeding Programmes. Experimental agriculture 30: 177-187. Euphytica 111: 91-104The paper addresses the issue of genotype by environment (G x E) interaction in relation to the distribution of germplasm from international to national breeding programs. Theoretical aspects of G x E interaction and of selection versus testing environment are reviewed. The importance of specific adaptation to maximize yield and yield stability in stress conditions is highlighted in barley and lentil. We conclude that repeated cycles of selection at a few sites have a high probability of reducing the frequency of genotypes specifically adapted to environmental and/or agronomic conditions not represented at those sites. Therefore, a wider and earlier devolution of the selection work done by International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs) to breeders of national programs will increase the chances of exploiting positive G x E interactions. It will also address the needs of small, resource-poor, subsistence farmers and reduce the danger of narrowing genetic diversity within crops and regions. This is an efficient way of making breeding programs in less developed countries more self-reliant which is a major objective of International Research Centers.

Cleveland, D. and D. Solieri. 2002. Farmers, scientists and plant breeding: knowledge, practice and the opportunities for collaboration. In: D. Cleveland and D. Solieri (Eds). Farmers, Scientists and Plant Breeding. CABI International.Control over management of the world's resources is increasingly contested because of economic, political and biophysical globalization and increasing demands of a population of more than 6 billion. This has led to new interest in indigenous or traditional knowledge in many areas, including agriculture and plant breeding. Farmers were the first plant breeders, beginning with domestication of plants over 12,000 years ago. Modern scientific plant breeding separated from farmers, especially in non-industrial regions. Plant breeding systems consist not only of crop genotypes and growing environments, but also of the social structures in which plant breeding is carried out, and the knowledge of farmers and scientists. Because of the challenge to make plant breeding and agriculture more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable, there is increasing interst in reuniting farmer and scientific plant breeding.

Ceccarelli, S. 2000. Decentralized Participatory Plant Breeding: Adapting Crops to Environments and Clients. Proceedings of the 8th International Barley Genetics Symposium, Adelaide, 22-27 October, 2000, Vol. I: 159-166.In recent years there has been an increasing interest towards participatory research in general, and towards participatory plant breeding in particular. Following the early work of Rhoades and Booth (1982), scientists have become increasingly aware that users' participation in technology development may increase considerably the probability of success for the technology. In the case of plant breeding, the concept of participation is often associated with the concept of decentralization, defined as selection (not testing) in the target environment(s), and decentralizedparticipatory plant breeding has been proposed as a strategy to reach those areas and those farmers which have been so far bypassed by the benefits of the so called “formal breeding” by exploiting specific adaptation not only to various physical environments but also to various users. Social scientists have been the first to experiment with various methodologies of participatory research, while in general biological scientists have been slower in accepting this innovative way of conducting research. Even now, in the case of participatory plant breeding (PPB), who either experiment it or practice it. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to discuss decentralizedparticipatory plant breeding from a plant breeding, rather than from a social science perspective.

Abedin MZ, Bool MRL. 2004. Agricultural technologies for rural poverty alleviation. Technical Advisory Notes. Flood-prone Rice Farming Systems Series. Los Baños (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute and International Fund for Agricultural Development. 57 p. ISBN 971-22-0201-1

Ceccarelli, S., S. Grando, R. Tutwiler, J. Baha, A.M. Martini, H. Salahieh, A. Goodchild and M. Michael. 2000. A Methodological Study on Participatory Barley Breeding. I . Selection Phase. Euphytica 111 91-104.Decentralized selection, defined as selection in the target environment, has been used to emphasize favorable interactions when significant genotype by environment interactions exist. However, crop breeding based on decentralized selection can still miss its objectives if it does not utilize the farmers’ knowledge of the crops and the environment, and it may fail to fit crops to the specific needs and uses of farmers’ communities unless it becomes participatory. One cycle of decentralized participatory selection was conducted in eleven locations in Syria. 208 barley entries (fixed lines and segregating populations) were planted unreplicated in two research stations and in the fields of nine Syrian (host) farmers, where they were managed (except planting) by the farmers themselves. Visual selection was conducted by a breeder at all locations and by the host farmers on their own fields and on both stations. In five farm locations, there was also a one-time group selection by neighboring farmers. Host farmers were able to handle the large number of entries making observations during the cropping season using different scoring methods. They did not use the performance of entries on station for their final selection and used a higher selection pressure than the breeder. In their own fields, they selected about one tenth the number of entries selected by the breeder, while on station the farmers selected, on average, about half the number of lines selected by the breeder. For some broad attributes, such as modern germplasm versus landraces, selection was mostly driven by environmental effects. Selection for other attributes was partly environmentally driven and partly based on individual farmers preferences. Selection preferences were similar for fixed or segregating populations. There was wider diversity among farmers’ selections in their own fields than among farmers’ selections on research stations and among breeder’s selections, irrespective of where the selection was conducted. Larger kernels, higher grain yield and biomass, and taller plants (particularly in environmentally stressed locations) were the characteristics most frequently used as selection criteria by both breeder and farmers. Entries selected by the farmers yielded as much, and in one case significantly more, than those selected by the breeder. Decentralized-participatory selection was significantly more efficient in identifying the highest yielding entries in farmers’ fields than any other type of selection.