Wageningen, The Netherlands
June 6, 2012
Participatory plant breeding can allow small farmers in China to acquire varieties that are adapted to local conditions. To ensure the success of this approach, however, farmers must be rewarded for their contribution to the conservation of biodiversity. This is the position taken by Chinese researcher Jingsong Li in her thesis, which she defended on May 29 at Wageningen University. Li also points out a number of legal complications concerning the acceptance and ownership of varieties developed with a participatory method.
China's formerly state-owned seed sector is rapidly becoming commercial. This creates a risk that small farmers are neglected as a target group and that genetic diversity is forgotten.
The intensive involvement of small farmers in breeding can facilitate the development of varieties that are particularly suitable to poor growing conditions. In this way, participatory breeding can be seen as a counterpart to the development of varieties for larger acreages, where farmers have better access to fertilisers and pesticides. Researcher Jingsong Li was the first to investigate the conditions in which participatory plant breeding can be beneficial for both farmers and biodiversity.
Li studied this subject in southwest China, one of the country’s poorest regions, where 25 million small-scale farmers live and where maize varieties have been developed via participatory plant breeding for the past ten years. While Li’s conclusions are mostly relevant for China, they are likely to be at least partly valid elsewhere.
Li argues that participatory plant breeding can only work if the value of genetic diversity is recognised by all parties. It is important that the improved landraces are not only used locally in traditional feasts and dishes. The project managed to take an important step toward a broadening of the market by selling products to a restaurant in the nearest major city. This is particularly useful since demand for locally grown and environmentally friendly food is increasing among Chinese urbanites.
In the framework of Li’s research, for the first time a contract was made between breeders and farmers for the mutual recognition of each other's effort. This means that farmers no longer have to buy from a breeder the seed of a variety to which they themselves contributed. The breeders teach the farmers how to grow good quality seed that they can sell on the local farmers' markets, resulting in additional income for the farmers and a possibility for the breeders to market the same variety in commercial markets in other regions.
The commercialisation of the Chinese seed industry is increasingly involving China in international negotiations on trade and property rights regarding plants. This means that commercial varieties developed through participatory breeding must also meet the strict requirements of the UPOV and TRIPS guidelines. This can cause problems such as, for instance, the varieties not being sufficiently homogeneous for the rules, which are new in China. Li and her team made progress in various workshops with local, regional and national governments, however, and the Chinese government is open to various proposed measures that can ensure that the varieties developed together with farmers can be marketed.
Jingsong Li is optimistic about the future of participatory plant breeding in China. “The innovations provide opportunities for the country to balance different interests, respect international legal obligations, and respond appropriately to the pressures of the competitive market,” she explains.
Jingsong Li’s research was funded by the International Development Research Centre in Canada. It was part of a research programme of the Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
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