A Biological Framework for Understanding Farmers' Plant

Cleveland, David A. (Department of Anthropology and the Environmental Studies Program, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106-3210, USA, [email protected]), Daniela Soleri (Office of Arid Lands Studies, University of Arizona, 1955 E 6 th St, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA; current address, Center for People, Food and Environment, 340 Arboleda, Santa Barbara, CA 93110, USA, and Institute for Social Behavioral and Economic Research, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA, [email protected]), and Steven E. Smith (School of Renewable Natural Resources, University of Arizona, 301 Biological Sciences East, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA, [email protected]). A BIOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING FARMERS' PLANT BREEDING. Economic Botany 54(3):377-394, 2000. We present a framework for understanding farmer plant breeding (including both choice of varieties and populations and plant selection) in terms of the basic biological model of scientific plant breeding, focusing on three key components of that model: 1) genetic variation, 2) environmental variation and variation of genotype-by-environment interaction, and 3) plant selection. For each of these concepts we suggest questions for research on farmers' plant breeding (farmers' knowledge, practice, and crop varieties and growing environments). A sample of recent research shows a range of explicit and implicit answers to these questions which are often contradictory, suggesting that generalizations based on experience with specific varieties, environments or farmers may not be valid. They also suggest that farmers' practice reflects an understanding of their crop varieties and populations that is in many ways fimdamentally similar to that of plant breeders; yet, is also different, in part because the details of their experiences are different. Further research based on this framework should be valuable for participatory or collaborative plant breeding that is currently being proposed to reunite farmer and scientic plant breeding.