Helping farmers adapt to climate and cropping system change through increased access to sorghum genetic resources adapted to prevalent sorghum cropping systems in Burkina Faso
Kirsten Vom Brocke,Gilles Trouche,Eva Weltzien,Clarisse P. Kondombo-Barro,Adama Sidibe,Robert B. Zougmoré,Eric Gozé +6 more
TL;DR: In the Boucle du Mouhoun region of Burkina Faso, researchers and farmers worked closely together to implement on-farm testing, including varietal selection trials, crop management and multi-locational trials as mentioned in this paper.
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Abstract: Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a major staple crop of Burkina Faso where farmers continue to cultivate photoperiod-sensitive guinea landraces as part of the strategy to minimize risk and ensure yield stability. In the Boucle du Mouhoun region, however, sorghum farmers appear to have insufficient varietal choice due to cropping systems having shifted towards more intensive cultivation of cotton and maize, and rainfall patterns having decreased over the past decade. In search for new varietal options that can respond to this changing context, researchers decided to give farmers access to ex-situ national collections along with the opportunity to evaluate recent improved varieties. From 2002 to 2007, researchers and farmers worked closely together to implement on-farm testing, including varietal selection trials, crop management and multi-locational trials. Farmers’ choices tend to differ among groups, villages and years, with the exception of four particular landraces: two originating from a collection carried out in the Mouhoun region more than 30 years previous to this research, and two other landraces that came from the dissimilar agro-ecological zones of Burkina Faso. These four were the most commonly selected landraces out of 36 cultivars that covered both improved and landrace varieties. Farmers’ selection criteria were focused on adaptation to agro-climatic conditions as well as specific grain qualities for processing and consumption. The potential usefulness of each variety was verified via multi-locational trials. The paper also shows that wide dissemination of experimental seed, not just across the Mouhoun region but also at a national scale, was largely achieved through collaboration with a strong farmer organisation in conjunction with farmer training programs focused on the on-farm seed production and the commercialisation of this seed.
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Figures
Figure 1. Map of Burkina Faso showing isohyets (mm) for agro-ecological regions and representing the main intervention sites (villages Sanaba and Lekuy) in the Mouhoun region and provinces of origin of introduced landraces. 
Table 2. Analyses of variance for the four individual test environments performed according to the underlying lattice design. Trial mean with standard errors (SE), least significant differences (l.s.d. 5%), repeatability (rep.%) and significance of entry effect. 
Table 3. Farmer criteria for selecting an entry related to local growing constraints and objectives. Percentage of the number of times criteria figured in farmers’ appreciations when selecting a variety relative to the total number of appreciations given during evaluations in Lekuy 2003 (n = 144) and Sanaba 2003 (n = 149). 
Table 6. Mean grain yield performance and estimates for slopes of regression lines for grain yield for five varieties evaluated in nine entry trials at 11 sites in the Mouhoun region in 2007. 
Table 5. Combined analysis according to the Finlay–Wilkinson (1966) model of 11 sites from field trials with nine entries conducted in the Mouhoun region in 2007. 
Figure 2. Series of on-farm participatory field trials and seed production activities in the Mouhoun region between 2002 and 2010.
Citations
A scoping review of adoption of climate-resilient crops by small-scale producers in low- and middle-income countries
Maricelis Acevedo,Kevin V. Pixley,Nkulumo Zinyengere,Sisi Meng,Hale Tufan,Karen A. Cichy,Livia Bizikova,Krista Isaacs,Kate Ghezzi-Kopel,Jaron Porciello +9 more
TL;DR: It is found that the most important determinants of adoption of climate-resilient crops were the availability and effectiveness of extension services and outreach, followed by education levels of heads of households, farmers’ access to inputs and fertilizers, and socio-economic status of farming families.
More than Yield: Ecosystem Services of Traditional versus Modern Crop Varieties Revisited
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reviewed the scientific literature to understand the role of different crop varieties for ecosystem services, comparing the performance and perception of traditional landraces versus modern varieties and ask the following questions: 1. When and why do farmers prefer cultural ecosystem services of landrace over high-yielding varieties.
108
Agronomic Evaluation of Sorghum Hybrids for Silage Production Cultivated in Semiarid Conditions.
Alexandre Fernandes Perazzo,Gleidson Giordano Pinto de Carvalho,Edson Mauro Santos,Higor Fábio Carvalho Bezerra,Thiago Carvalho da Silva,Gildenia Araújo Pereira,Rosângela C. S. Ramos,José Avelino Santos Rodrigues +7 more
TL;DR: The evaluated sorghum hybrids exhibited satisfactory accumulated forage yields due to their high yield in regrowth, which indicates that they are suitable for use in animal production systems in semi-arid regions.
Assessing impacts of agricultural research for development: A systemic model focusing on outcomes
Ludovic Temple,Danielle Barret,Genowefa Blundo Canto,Marie-Hélène Dabat,Agathe Devaux-Spatarakis,Guy Faure,Etienne Hainzelin,Syndhia Mathé,Aurélie Toillier,Bernard Triomphe +9 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used an impact pathway framework to assess innovation processes by looking at 13 case studies on research in agricultural and food sectors of developing countries, and demonstrated that the way impact pathways are framed and analysed needs to be improved to better consider the complex interactions between the diverse actors involved in innovation processes.
48
Impact of participatory sorghum breeding in Burkina Faso
Kirsten vom Brocke,Clarisse Pulchérie Kondombo,Marion Guillet,Roger Kaboré,Adama Sidibe,Ludovic Temple,Gilles Trouche +6 more
TL;DR: In this paper, an ex post analysis of the impact of research projects related to participatory breeding of sorghum in Burkina Faso was carried out in 2015 and 2016 using the "Impress" method developed by CIRAD.
22
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