Participatory approach in varietal improvement: A case study in finger millet in India

Crop improvement research has made a significant contribution in the last 5 decades through the development and release of a large number of varieties in all important crops for general cultivation. It is generally felt that the modern plant breeding has catered more to the needs of rich farmers who could afford high management under irrigated situations. In contrast, subs istence farmers growing millets and other minor crops in unfavourable envir onments use low levels of inputs and have not been benefitted by high yield ing variety (HYV) technology. In the present case study, the usefulness of the participatory approach for identifying cultivars for harsh environments and acceptable to resource-poor farmers has been demonstrated. The study c arried out in Chitradurga district using six finger millet varieties with 1 50 fanners pointed out the effectiveness of such an approach in identifying cultivars for meeting the requirement of the resource-poor farmers under r eal farm situations. Another important outcome of the farmer participatory varietal trial has been the identification of a most suitable variety for g rowing in a specific niche as a second crop which otherwise would have been difficult under the variety evaluation system confining to research statio ns.