Genetic diversity in Ethiopian Durum wheat ( Triticum turgidum var durum ) inferred from phenotypic variations

The valorization of genetic diversities of major crops like wheat may help substantially to feed the world Population. Durum heat genotypes consisting of 265 farmers’ varieties (FVs), which have been cultivated for many centuries in Ethiopia, as well as 24 improved varieties (IMVs) have been recently evaluated in northern Ethiopia. The evaluation has been carried out at two different locations for 2 consecutive years to verify the inherited diversity in FVs for important phenological and agronomic traits; with the intention to provide refined information to breeders and genebank managers. As a result of a careful evaluation, a very significant variation was observed between the FVs and IMVs. A large number of the former have demonstrated superior performance to the latter in terms of mean values of the major traits within the stipulated years and locations. The best perform- ing FV has shown a gain of 20% grain yield over the best IMV. Multivariate analyses revealed that FVs displayed larger genetic diversity than in those IMVs. FVs could therefore be used as donor of useful alleles in durum wheat breeding for improvement of yield per se and other traits of agronomic and phenological importance. The identified stable superior FVs include: 8208, 226834A, 238567, 222426, 226282 could be best candidates for farmers in marginal environments. Genotypes that have shown stable performance for spatial variation such as 204493A, 214357 and 238567; and temporal variation such as 8208, 208479, 214357 and 226834A could be the best candidates for exploitation in future breeding programs

Which wheat for smallholder Ethiopian farmers? Joining traditional knowledge with metric phenotypes

Africa hosts approximately 33 million smallholder farms, which account for 80% of the continent's farming system. Subsistence farming systems face highly variable climatic conditions that threaten locally-adapted, low-input agriculture. For the near future, they are among the most seriously affected by changing climatic conditions, posing additional risks to these systems. The benefits of modern breeding benefits may fail to reach small farming communities when broadly adapted material does not address specific local requirements. To date, participatory variety selection has only scratched the surface of the exploitability of farmers' knowledge in breeding. Yet, considering that over 80% of the farmers receive seeds from informal systems, making sure that well adapted material is available in production systems, seems to be a reasonable solution to quickly affect a large populations. Ethiopia is one of the most populous countries in Africa, with more than 96 million inhabitants, 80% of whom are engaged in small-scale agriculture, and often subsistence farming. We involved 60 smallholder farmers in two locations in Ethiopia to evaluate traits of their interest in 400 wheat accessions, producing 230,400 data points. We couple this information with metric measurements of 10 agronomic traits, breaking down farmers' preferences on quantitative phenotypes. We found that the relative importance of wheat traits is gender- and locality- dependent, and produced a ranking of the 400 varieties identifying the combination of traits most desired by farmers. The study scale and methods lead to a better understanding of smallholder farmer needs, broadening the discussion for the future of local, sustainable breeding efforts accommodating farmers' knowledge

Genome wide association study to identify the genetic base of smallholder farmer preferences of Durum wheat traits

Smallholder agriculture involves millions of farmers worldwide. A methodical utilization of their traditional knowledge in modern breeding efforts may help the production of locally adapted varieties better addressing their needs. In this study, a combination of participatory approaches, genomics, and quantitative genetics is used to trace the genetic basis of smallholder farmer preferences of durum wheat traits. Two smallholder communities evaluated 400 Ethiopian wheat varieties, mostly landraces, for traits of local interest in two locations in the Ethiopian highlands. For each wheat variety, farmers provided quantitative evaluations of their preference for flowering time, spike morphology, tillering capacity, and overall quality. Ten agronomic and phenology traits were simultaneously measured on the same varieties, providing the means to compare them with farmer traits. The analysis of farmer traits showed that they were partially influenced by gender and location but were repeatable and heritable, in some cases more than metric traits. The durum wheat varieties were genotyped for more than 80,000 SNP markers, and the resulting data was used in a genome wide association (GWA) study providing the molecular dissection of smallholder farmers' choice criteria

First experiences with a novel farmer citizen science approach: crowdsourcing participatory variety selection through on-farm triadic comparisons of technologies (TRICOT)

Rapid climatic and socio-economic changes challenge current agricultural R&D capacity. The necessary quantum leap in knowledge generation should build on the innovation capacity of farmers themselves. A novel citizen science methodology, triadic comparisons of technologies or tricot, was implemented in pilot studies in India, East Africa, and Central America. The methodology involves distributing a pool of agricultural technologies in different combinations of three to individual farmers who observe these technologies under farm conditions and compare their performance. Since the combinations of three technologies overlap, statistical methods can piece together the overall performance ranking of the complete pool of technologies. The tricot approach affords wide scaling, as the distribution of trial packages and instruction sessions is relatively easy to execute, farmers do not need to be organized in collaborative groups, and feedback is easy to collect, even by phone. The tricot approach provides interpretable, meaningful results and was widely accepted by farmers. The methodology underwent improvement in data input formats. A number of methodological issues remain: integrating environmental analysis, capturing gender-specific differences, stimulating farmers' motivation, and supporting implementation with an integrated digital platform. Future studies should apply the tricot approach to a wider range of technologies, quantify its potential contribution to climate adaptation, and embed the approach in appropriate institutions and business models, empowering participants and democratizing science

Genome wide association study to identify the genetic base of smallholder farmer preferences of durum wheat traits

The study was conducted during the 2012 wheat growing season in two locations in the Ethiopian highlands. The first location was in the Geregera area, in the village of Workaye, Meket district (Amhara region, 11◦40′N/38◦52′E, WGS84). The second location was in the Hagreselam district, in the village of Melfa (Tigray region, 13◦39′N/39◦10′E, WGS84). In each location, 30 smallholder farmers growing wheat were selected on a voluntary basis, but keeping a 50:50 gender representation Farmers were asked to list the traits they used to evaluate wheat varieties, hereafter termed farmer traits (FT), and these were ranked by importance. Technicians collected 10 metrics traits on these sites and farmers provided a score for their overall plot evaluation. The genetic material here analyzed is a diversity panel comprising 400 Ethiopian wheat accessions conserved ex situ at the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute. DNA extraction for genotyping was conducted in Ethiopia, at the Mekelle University Molecular and Biotechnology Laboratory (Mekelle,Tigray)