Online Postgraduate course on “Participatory Plant Breeding & Resilient Seed Systems: Options for Stakeholder Engagement and Benefit Sharing 30 November 30th –December 04th, 2020.

Sorghum breeding for grain and stover quality through a farmer-

researcher network in West Africa: case of Mali

Baloua Nebie, PhDSorghum Breeder, ICRISAT-West and Central Africa

B.Nebie@cgiar.org

Outline

01• Context of West African agriculture

02• Organization of the sorghum breeding

program in West Africa

03• Role of farmers’ network in the sorghum

improvement process: case of Mali

04• Conclusion

Sorghum production zone

(500-1200 mm)

Weltzien et al. (2018)

Sorghum production WA: 5.5 m tons 1980 to over 13 t 2017 (FAOSTAT, 2017)

WA: 31% of world area and 45% of Africa total area

Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali~ 60% of WA sorghum

Context West Africa (WA)

Diversity: Environmental Cultural/uses Social Economic Biotic constraints

Sorghum grown by smallholderfarmers as staple food crop (grains)

Context West Africa

Stover for livestock feeding

What type of varieties? Which characteristic of

grains?

What type of plants and

what characteristics?

Sorghum thin porridge

Sorghum beer

Sorghum thick porridge (Tô)

Sowing)

Threshing)

Set breeding

objectives

Generate or assemble diversity, breeding

material with relevant traits

Select in segregating

populations =

Create exp. varieties

Test experimental varieties & feedbacks workshop

Release varieties,

Produce and distribute seed

Farmers

Source: Adapted from Weltzien et al. 2003

Organization of the breeding program Involvement of farmers at each stage to ensure their needs are considered/colearning

Farmers fields represent targeted environments and give good coverage of environmental, socio-economic, conditions

Farmers involvement eases technology up take/adoption

Use of farmer-research network

New

ne

eds?

For

furt

he

r te

stin

g

Planning activities base on farmers needs (Research-FOs)

Selection of farmers testers_Implementation of activity

by farmers (FOs)

Collection of data (agronomic, preferences, processing) (FOs

& Research)

Identification of constraints (PRA, informal workshops, etc.)

--> Breeding objectives

Feedbacks workshop for sharing results (Research-FOs)

Identification of varieties for further testing or release process (FOs-

Research)

Seed production and commercialization by FOs

(accessibility and affordability to farmers)

Varieties release Rev

iew

ob

ject

ives

bas

e o

n f

eed

bac

ks (

valu

e ch

ain

act

ors

)

Organization of the sorghum breeding program in West Africa/farmers’ role

Population development using diversity of parents

Data collection in the field (farmers evaluation and yield data)

Seedling vigor (scores 1-5)

Flowering time (scores 1-5)

Panicle appreciation (1-5)

Appreciation of grains (1-5)

Global appreciation (1-5)

Field visit to identify important traits

Group discussion (men and women in different groups)

Prioritization of traits (3 to 4 traits)

Evaluation using scores and comments

Use of cards with different colour

White = Good; yellow = fair;

red = bad/reject

Calculation of preferences (Men, women, and global)

XXXXXXXXXXXXX Women

Men

XXXXXXXXXXXXX Women

Men

XXXXXXXXXXXXX Women

Men

Tester farmer

Individual voting

Groups evaluation

Research facilitate discussions and the process Yield data collected by research and farmers organizations

Cards used for voting

Group (women; men) appreciationIndividual voting

Breeding material evaluation by farmers

Dual purpose sorghum

Local sorghum variety

Dual purpose sorghum

Stover quality, new priority trait How do farmers measure the stover quality

number of leaves

stem and leaves greenery (stay green)proportion of plant and total stover upaked by animals (after harvest): now lignin and sweetness of the stem

How to consider stover quality in the breeding?

15 ProgeniesSI > all checks

Recurrent parent Soumba

Integration of stover yield and quality in breeding program: Dual purpose varieties

15 multi-purposes sorghum linesidentified with high SI (0.24 to 1.44) vsSoumba (SI = -1.28)

Grain yield = 2 to 4t/ha vs check Soumba (1.8t/ha)

Stover yield = 14 to 27 t/ha vs Soumba (12 t/ha)

How to identify varieties combiningboth grain and stover?

Use of selection index (𝑆𝐼) with St_𝐺𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑦𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑; St_𝑉𝑖𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦; St_𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑦𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑 ;St_%Green leaves ; St_Sugar yield

SI = X1*St_Grain yield + X2*St_Vitrosity +X3*St_StoverY + X4*St_StayGreen + X5*SuY

Values of X1; X2; X3; X4 depends on the socio-economic importance of the targeted traits

53

66

211

186 184173 172

161 159 158 157 157 157 157 154 154 153

121

10095

0

50

100

150

200

250

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Rm

t gr

ain

(g/

m2

)

Pre

fere

nce

%

Grain yield and farmers’ preferences of new hybrids

Pref H Pref F Gr_yield gm2

Importance of farmers’ participation in varietialselection, revealed here:

Hybrids with high yield but not chosen by farmers: Plant architecture? Grain quality/colour? Stay green? = farmers’ groups evaluation

Case of Pablo with low yield (~ 1t/ha) in the trials but preferred by farmers (Women preference = 66%)

New hybrid (ICSX 1761291:H) with good yield (~1.6 t/ha = 60% yield advantage compared to Pablo) but recorded low preference of women (53%)

Feedback on data from field (agronomic data and farmers preferences)

Grain processing ability (1 & 2) Food cooking ability and yield 1

2

Evaluation of grain processing decortication ability (women)

Grain by-products (bran, flour, grit) yields

Time for cooking Food yield

Grains

Flour

Bran

Sensory evaluation/Culinary test: Best 4 varieties from field selection+ best local check for food

Decision of farmers to: reject variety retain variety for farmers evaluation/release

Appreciation of food quality: colour, taste, consistency, global

Ranking by research and final decision of farmers

Appreciation of women

Appreciation of men

Example of farmers appreciation tô(colour, taste, consistency, global)

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

12

A/D

U-2

0

ICSX

17

65

04

9: H

ICSX

17

65

03

8:H

ICSX

17

65

50

5:H

Tieb

le

12

A/D

U-2

0

ICSX

17

65

04

9: H

ICSX

17

65

03

8:H

ICSX

17

65

50

5:H

Tieb

le

Women Men

%

Men and Women preference for the To in Wacoro

Colour Taste Consistency Global appreciation

1

78

75

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

ICSX

17

65

02

6:H

ICSX

17

65

03

8:H

ICSX

17

65

50

2:H

ICSX

17

65

50

5:H

Segu

etan

a

ICSX

17

65

02

6:H

ICSX

17

65

03

8:H

ICSX

17

65

50

2:H

ICSX

17

65

50

5:H

Segu

etan

a

Women Men

%

Men and Women preference for the To in Keniero

Colour Taste Consistency Global appreciation

63

90

55

Important to consider the context (same hybrid appreciate in Keniero and not in Wacoro)

23 2419 20 23

15 1321

17

2719 19

23 20

57 5255

6452

56 58

52

50

54

4854 49

60

2025 25

1625

30 29 2633

19

3327 28

20

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

%

Grain by-products

Git

Flour

Bran

Grit: for food (called sorghum rice in specific zones)

Flour: use to make the most popular food called tô in

West Africa

Bran: for animal feeding (pigs, ships,

cows, etc.)

Importance of different by-products from grains

The importance of different by-products depends on: Food consumption habits (more tô versus more Yanyanki = sorghum rice) Type of farmers (with versus without animals) Bran is an important product for women with pigs and small ruminants

Farmers network plays key role in sorghum variety/hybrid development in West Africa

The variability of conditions is captured through participatory breeding

Breeding objectives are regularly reviewed with farmers implication

Farmers to be considered as partners and not only beneficiaries

Farmers organizations are playing major role in variety release and seed systems ->accessible by farmers

Conclusion

Burkina Faso

Niger

Mali

Farmer-Research network in West Africa