Incorporating of users' and gender perspectives in farmer-led participatory plant breeding on maize: Experiences from the Western hills of Nepal

Abstract

Maize production is the main source of livelihood for the farmers of the western hills of Nepal However, farmers have very limited access to improved varieties of maize, suitable to their local requirements. They cultivate a number of maize varieties maintained locally through continuous selection for preferred traits. An initial survey of the two project sites in the Gulmi district of western Nepal suggests that farmers apply a number of criteria to the selection of a particular maize population to suite their production environment and to meet their family requirements for different uses of maize. However, the survey results show that Ihe differences among farmers in the preference for and selection of a particular maize variety are not very strong. The report discusses the ways these differences have been analyzed and incorporated into Ihe design of participatory plant breeding for the improvement of local maize varieties by the farmers