Case study Identity Card

Long title: Participatory Sorghum breeding
Geographical coverage of the case: Two administrative regions of  Burkina Faso ( Boucle du Mouhoun and Centre-Nord)
Case study team: Gilles Trouche (CIRAD, Agap) , Kirsten Vom Brocke (CIRAD, Agap), Ludovic Temple (CIRAD, Innovation), Marion Guillet (Sorbonne, intern)
Years covered: 1995-2010

Case study description

The innovation under study: Participatory sorghum breeding in Burkina Faso, production of new varieties with and for the farmers

In the mid-1990s, sorghum plant breeders started to apply a new breeding approach in Burkina Faso: participatory plant breeding. It is based on a simple principle: involving producers in all stages of variety development. This was to be a turning point in sorghum improvement in this country. Combined with the decentralised production of certified seed managed by local farmers’ organisations, participatory plant breeding has proved to be highly effective in creating and disseminating varieties that meet the needs of farmers. It has led to a broader dissemination of improved varieties, the development of seed production capacity and the professionalisation of a large number of farmers. A review of an innovation that is rewriting the rules for farmers and researchers.

Sorghum is the main cereal crop grown in Burkina Faso, with more than 1.5 million hectares. Along with pearl millet, it is the staple diet of rural populations in the Sub-sahelian regions. In spite of various varietal selection programmes, its productivity remains low, with an average yield of approximately one tonne per hectare.

In the late 1990s, researchers realised that conventional sorghum breeding had failed to produce improved varieties that correctly met the needs of producers, in other words combining good adaptation to farmers’ cropping systems, enhanced yields compared to traditional cultivars and high grain quality. This gave rise to the idea of involving producers in the development of new varieties: participatory plant breeding was born.

In Burkina Faso, over the course of 20 years, from 1995 to 2015, a number of successive projects were launched to implement this breeding method, but also to ensure the production and marketing of improved seed. These projects were primarily conducted in two regions of the country, the Centre-Nord and the Boucle du Mouhoun regions.

The Centre-Nord region is situated in the Sahelian climate zone, with less than 600 mm of rainfall per year. The production systems there are based on millet, sorghum and cowpea production and small ruminant farming. The Boucle du Mouhoun region is situated in the North-Sudanian zone, with 600 to 900 mm of rainfall per year. Production systems there are more diversified and include cash crops such as cotton, maize and sesame.

Developing new varieties with farmers

Participatory sorghum breeding in Burkina Faso began in 1995, with the establishment of on-farm varietal trials set up by researchers from CIRAD and INERA, the Burkinabé agricultural research institute. The farmers conducting these trials were invited to evaluate the proposed varieties there.

However, activities still followed a top-down approach, in which decisions were made upstream by researchers who, as a last resort, turned to producers to ask their opinions on the variety they had selected. These were nevertheless the early days of the participatory approach.

This start-up phase ended in the early 2000s, and was followed in 2002 by a first major participatory breeding project, the Sorghum Agro-biodiversity project, coordinated by CIRAD.

A turning point in sorghum breeding

This project was clearly a turning point in sorghum breeding, with the establishment of a truly participatory plant breeding process and initial support for seed production. The goal was to work with and for farmers to create new sorghum varieties, exploiting the genetic diversity of local traditional varieties through the creation of broad genetic based populations and their participatory improvement using recurrent selection methods. From the outset, it was based on local farmers’ organisations such as UGCPA-BM and AMSP, which were involved in all decisions made. It led to the dissemination of the first improved varieties produced by this breeding strategy, but also to better knowledge of sorghum varietal diversity.

From 2006 onwards, it was followed by a series of projects, primarily coordinated by ICRISAT, which guaranteed the continuity and coherence of research, ongoing cooperation between the research institutions involved, and continued commitment to partnerships with farmers’ organisations.

Certified seed, from production to marketing

These projects helped to consolidate achievements, to extend participatory breeding actions and variety trials to new villages, to train farmers in these activities as well as in certified seed production, and to develop marketing strategies for this seed.

Indeed, at that time, the production and marketing of seed were particularly important. In 2006, the Burkinabé authorities passed a new seed legislation imposing additional constraints on small seed producers, such as an increase in the minimum area authorised for certified seed production, which rose from 0.5 to 3 hectares for sorghum, a technical training requirement, including proof of such training, and the exclusive sale of certified seed through formal distribution channels.

Seed producers thus received specific training, which was accompanied by market research and training on marketing for producers and retailers. Seed storage warehouses were built in the Sanmatenga province.

Research was conducted on seed packaging for small producers. This resulted in the most important innovation for seed marketing strategies – mini packs. Sold from 2010 onwards at an affordable price, these 100 to 200 g packs enable farmers to test improved varieties on a small plot of their land before adopting them.

Impact surveys

In order to measure the impact of these innovations, in 2015, the researchers conducted surveys among all stakeholders – sorghum producers and seed producers, processors, agro-dealers – in the two intervention areas. In total, around 40 people were interviewed, either individually or in focus groups during workshops.

Impact analysis was also based on data from a previous study on the adoption of improved sorghum varieties conducted in 2013 and on statistical data provided by INERA and the Ministry of Agriculture.

Huge increases in the use of improved varieties

The first impact observed was a remarkable increase in the use of improved varieties in the intervention areas of the projects.

From 2002 to 2010, eight varieties developed by the participatory plant breeding programme were registered in the national catalogue: CSM 63-E, Flagnon, Gnossiconi, Kapèlga, Sariaso 15, Sariaso 16, Sariaso 18 and Sariaso 20. With a yield increase of between 7 and 30% compared to traditional varieties and combined with improved earliness, good grain quality and, above all, enhanced adaptation to the needs and constraints of farmers. Confirmed by participatory variety trials, these varieties are clearly improving food security for farmers, reducing or ending the inter-seasonal food shortage for almost half of them. Moreover, thanks to surplus grain production, small producers have increased their income by selling part of their harvest.

Participatory plant breeding has also had a fundamental impact on producers’ capacities: they have acquired not only technical skills in varietal selection, but also essential knowledge enabling them to choose the best varieties according to the constraints of their own production systems as well as in relation to their socioeconomic production context and the uses to be made of the sorghum grown.

The certified seed boom

The increase in the use of improved varieties has logically gone hand in hand with an increase in sales of certified seed, which boomed between 2005 and 2010. In the Boucle du Mouhoun region, only 20 members of the UGCPA farmers’ union purchased improved seed in 2005, compared to 550 in 2010: the number of producers purchasing certified seed was multiplied by 25 over five years in the target villages of the participatory breeding programmes.

The same applies to the areas sown with improved varieties, which exceeded 75% of all areas under sorghum production in the research site villages in the Centre-Nord region (Sanmatenga province). Improved varieties reached 65% in the Boucle du Mouhoun region. These percentages are far higher than that of the country as a whole, where only 3 to 5% of sorghum areas are sown with improved varieties.

The biggest buyers of seed produced by the farmers’ organisations are state-run seed distribution programmes. The quantities of sorghum seed redistributed by these programmes also increased 20-fold between 2010 and 2013.

The production of sorghum seed has become a vital source of income for seed producers.

Decentralising seed production, professionalising producers

The success of the new sorghum varieties is also due to a more decentralised approach to seed production. Decentralised seed production by different farmers’ organisations has been made possible by the training provided to seed producers in the context of either research projects or courses run by the national seed agency.

Indeed, it is this training that ensures producers fully understand the regulatory and certification system and, most importantly, confers seed producer status, in other words authorises seed production and marketing.

At the national or even regional level, this research has consolidated the certified seed market in general, and has had a clear impact on seed legislation guidelines.

One drawback is that this production of certified seed has resulted in an increase in the use of insecticides, which are needed to preserve seed during storage.

Progression and decline of varietal diversity

Although these breeding programmes help to increase varietal diversity, they can also result in local varieties being abandoned, and thus in a reduction in genetic diversity. This reduction is apparent in some villages, which are choosing to grow mostly improved varieties. However, in most other villages, farmers are continuing to grow local varieties alongside the improved varieties, thereby preserving the varietal and genetic diversity of sorghum on their farms. Furthermore, these programmes have contributed to reintroducing into their region of origin two local varieties that were abandoned 40 years ago and are now popular with farmers once more.

Improved varieties are widely adopted

Today, improved sorghum varieties are being used far beyond the target areas of the project. The dissemination of these varieties is largely due to the national subsidised seed distribution programme, but also to seed fairs and exchange visits between farmers.

The Kapèlga variety, for example, which has been widely distributed by State programmes, is now grown in all regions of the country, and other farmers’ groups have begun to produce seed in the Kouritenga and Bazéga provinces, among others.

Improved varieties have also crossed national borders, with one of them, the Gnossiconi variety, having already been adopted in the Tominian region in Mali. A further variety derived from the Burkinabé PPB programme has recently been registered in the Malian catalogue.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders involved in the innovation process

Value chain stakeholders : Sorghum-cereals
Research stakeholders : CIRAD, INERA, ICRISAT
Civil society stakeholders : two farmer organizations (AMSP and UGCPA-BM)
Institutional stakeholders : Ministry of Agriculture, livestock and water resources
Others : individual or small groups of farmer-breeders, farmer-tester and seed producers

Stakeholders impacted by the innovation process

Value chain Stakeholders: Farmers (sorghum growers) of the target regions and other regions, sorghum seed producers, farmer organizations, seed cooperatives, small agro-business companies.