DIIVA-PR: Dissemination of Interspecific ICARDA Varieties and Elites through Participatory Research

Climate change is seriously affecting productivity in Africa and the Middle East, and its effects are becoming more evident each year. To keep up with this rate of change, agricultural technologies need to be rapidly delivered to farmers. Unfortunately, the pipeline for variety release and promotion in Morocco can be extremely slow and tedious, unable to keep up with the rate of change needed. Similarly, Ethiopia, Senegal and Lebanon have strict requirements to achieve variety registration that can cause delays of up to 10 years. One of the main issues is the need for high purity of breeders seeds that must be derived from individual F9 plants, a process that alone can require up to 3 years. Furthermore, seed multiplication of candidate varieties is often delayed until after the final registration is obtained, which can add an additional 5 years to the process. A methodology needs to be put in place to align breeders, seed system specialists, private companies and farmers to accelerate this critical pipeline.

The Intervention strategy to achieve the desired objectives is: i. Evaluate and fix inbreeding germplasm developed during pre-breeding phase 1 projects (barley and durum) and evaluate and fix to inbreeding CWR-derived germplasm (lentil) ii. Conduct multi-locations testing in dryland research stations of Morocco assessing the performances of the lines issued from wide crosses against the best commercial checks (durum, barley, and lentil). iii. Assess the nutritional and industrial quality of the produced grains to determine the health and economic benefits of CWR (durum, barley, and lentil). iv. Conduct on-farm participatory selection of the best candidate varieties (durum, barley, and lentil). Record farmers needs via targeted interviews and use these to develop selection indexes for better targeting the evaluation of material indicated at point ‘i’ (durum, barley, and lentil). v. Deploy a novel fast-track purification and pre-multiplication system to submit the best CWR candidates for variety release in Morocco (durum, barley, and lentil). vi. Deploy a novel fast-track purification and pre-multiplication system to submit the best CWR candidates for variety release in Lebanon (durum, barley, and lentil). vii. Assess the most promising candidates identified for Morocco in Ethiopia (durum, barley, and lentil). viii. Assess the best wide crosses derived lines for adaptation to heat stress in Senegal (durum, and lentil). ix. Share the best material containing CWR introgressions with more than 100 breeders worldwide via the International Nursery of ICARDA (durum, barley, and lentil), a targeted workshop (durum), and via a scientific article (durum, barley, and lentil).

ICARDA’s gene bank collection is among the largest in the world totaling 155,352 accessions (43,000 of wheat, 32,560 of barley, and 14,512 of lentil), mostly composed of landraces and crop wild relatives (CWR). In this project, we present a new model to create a paradigm shift and accelerate both release, fast-track pre-multiplication, and involvement of farmers in the decision process, while also making them aware of the new available varieties. In particular, the project targets the use of the off-season to accelerate the production of pure seeds, followed by a pre-multiplication since the moment a candidate variety is presented to the catalog, and a proven method for the involvement of farmers via participatory variety selection (PVS). The basic principle is to utilize some of the poorest areas of Morocco as a pilot study, since preliminary data on the yield superiority of CWR-derived elites are already available, to then promote both germplasm and method to other 3 partner countries (Lebanon, Senegal, and Ethiopia). In addition, the project includes a careful understanding of adaptation as well as the nutritional value of the three crops across regions, which in turns ensures better targeting and aims at improving diets in poor rural communities. Another component of this project is the creation and dissemination of new superior cultivars for tomorrow, through the exploitation of the CWR introgression generated in the first phase. The PVS process will identify existing gaps between the promoted CWR material and the farmers’ preferences. These gaps will be converted into selection indexes and used to better target cultivars for tomorrow among the existing CWR segregating populations. In the course of the project, the CWR segregating populations will be evaluated across sites, specific traits of interest will be identified, and pedigree selection used to integrate them into superior inbred lines. Finally, both existing and to be developed CWR-derived elites, shall be promoted not only in farmers’ fields, but also among fellow breeders from Morocco, Ethiopia, Senegal, and Lebanon. The absolute best CWR lines will enter the ICARDA international nurseries system and be disseminated to more than 100 partners in over 40 countries in the world. Also, the data generated from this project will be disseminated in the form of a research article to show the potential of CWR-derived varieties to the whole plant science community. All data generated will also be provided to Germinate 3 database for storage and use.