A Field Guide to Participatory Methods for Sourcing New Crop Diversity

Crop genetic diversity can make farming systems more resilient. But in order to ensure the sustainability of crop varieties, smallholder farmers must be included smallholder farmers in the development phase. Breeding and variety development strategies are now becoming more participatory, with multiple methodologies to include farmers in the conversation of crop genetic diversity. 

This guide provides details on the history and pros and cons of four participatory diversity deployment methods, helping practitioners distinguish between the methods and choose one that best fits their objectives. The four methods are briefly listed below. To learn more about each of these methods, access the resulting Decision Tool and summary for choosing the best intervention and methods, read A Field Guide to Participatory Methods for Sourcing New Crop Diversity. 

Four Participatory Diversity Deployment Methods

• Informal Research and Development (IRD) 
• Diversity Kits
• Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) 
• Triadic Comparison of Technologies (TRICOT) 

Decision tool for choosing interventions and methods for sourcing new crop diversity as per production constraints

<p>Decision tool for choosing interventions and methods for sourcing new crop diversity </p>

Bioversity International, adapted from Jarvis et a. 2011