Organic farming is based on low productivity environments regarding the restricted supply of inputs. Thus, to maximize the response of selection, the local breeding approach was put forward for organic agriculture. To analyse this approach, efforts of organic farmers and scientists were combined in a pertinent, participatory breeding approach using spring faba bean as crop. A set of genotypes with different levels of heterozygosity and heterogeneity were tested in four organic farms and one conventional location. Results for grain yield showed that the genotype-location interaction was highly significant and contributed to a large extent to the yield variation. The findings indicated that indeed local breeding programs could give greater genetic gains for organic cropping systems than traditional, formal plant breeding programs
