Breeding better rainfed rice varieties through farmer participation: some early lessons from Eastern India

Autor: Courtois, Brigitte, Singh, Rakesh Kumar, Pandey, Sushil, Piggin, C., Paris, T., Sarkarung, S., Singh, V.P., McLaren, Graham, Baghel, S.S., Sahu, R.K., Sahu, V.N., Sharma, S.K., Singh, S., Singh, H.N., Singh, A., Singh, O.N., Sisodia, B.V.S., Misra, C.H., Roy, J.K., Chaudhary, D., Prasad, K., Sinha, P.K., Mandal, N.P.
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 1998
Předmět:
Zdroj: International Seminar of the CGIAR System Wide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis. 2
Popis: Almost 45% of the world's rice land is rainfed (IRRI 1997). These areas depend solely on rainfall and runoff for water supply. Rice yields are low and fluctuate widely because of highly variable rainfall patterns. The rural poor of Asia are concentrated in rainfed areas. Rice is their staple food and rice production is their major economic activity. Reducing poverty for these populations will require a major increase in agricultural productivity, which entails, among other factors, a higher and more stable rice yield. A challenge facing the agricultural research sector is to develop rice varieties for these complex rainfed environments and make them available to farmers. Classical breeding approaches for developing improved rice varieties have been highly effective in the relatively homogenous irrigated ecosystem. In contrast, the success of such an approach has been limited in rainfed environments because of high levels of agroecological diversity. Farmers' social and economic environments are diverse and interact with biophysical factors resulting in a multitude of rice-based systems, each demanding specific management strategies. Despite continued effort to develop suitable varieties for these environments, the adoption rate has remained low and farmers rely predominantly on traditional rice varieties. The limited impact of breeding programs is relatively well quantified in some areas and less documented in others
Databáze: OpenAIRE