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Phase 2
Indigenous crop development in sahelian area of Burkina Faso
An alternative for on-farm agrobiodiversity
management for local seed security
Phase II, 2000-2003
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The development of traditional crop in the
sahelian zone of Burkina Faso : an alternative strategy for
on-farm agrobiodiversity conservation for local seed security.
These are CBDC project concerns in Burkina Faso.
CBDC project in Burkina Faso aims to
rehabilitate the most vital traditional species of Sorghum,
millet, cowpea, groundnut and ochra. This is achieved through
the stimulation of conservation of crop genetic resources in
peasant farmers’ setting and self-promotion of seed production
through participatory plant selection (PPS).
Involvement of communities in agricultural
research and the incorporation of indigenous knowledge is an
urgent undertaking. The knowledge would be availed to the
research scientists who together with the communities would
evaluate and incorporate it in the main stream agricultural
research and national development.
With this in mind INERA thinks that it is
very important to understand, document and validate the
indigenous knowledge of the traditional rural communities on
management, conservation and utilisation of biological diversity
in order to integrate it into the existing research on plant
genetic resources.
The CBDC project in Burkina Faso intends to
produce effective research methodologies that validate and
strengthen community crop conservation systems and development
technologies.
The project will result to a stronger
understanding of the informal seed systems of rural communities,
especially considering its advantages and disadvantages
vis-à-vis the formal seed systems and its implication on crop
conservation and development, production of high quality
planting materials, and the need for germplasm exchange.
NGOs in Burkina Faso, especially those
involved with agricultural concerns, the national research
institutes and farmers will have immediate uses for the results
of the CBDC project in their various interests.
The product will formulate recommendation for
policies and institutional reforms to encourage and facilitate
co-operation between farming communities and the formal research
institutions. The most important of the CBDC project Burkina
Faso, however, will be its works on local varieties, mostly
landraces and it will contribute to better understanding between
the formal and informal sectors and increased support to rural,
community based plant genetic resources efforts.
- To contribute to Burkinabé farmers’ the capacities and
reinforcement in traditional crops diversity conservation in
order to increase agricultural production.
- To rehabilitate landraces by integrated local knowledge
and scientific approach to strengthen seed security building
of community as a way of achieving its own development.
- To develop integrated methodologies and organisational
forms to support process of plant genetic resources
management and local crop development to strengthen the role
of farmers in participatory plant selection.
- To rise the initiatives for local seed supply system
improvement and local genebank management by rural
communities.
As an institution mandated to carry out
agricultural research in Burkina Faso, INERA has a unit that
plays a central role in the overall co-ordination and monitoring
of plant germplasm management. In close consultation and
collaboration with all concerned including national
institutions, decision makers, farm communities, scientists,
agricultural extension agents, Agricultural NGOs, INERA has been
creating appropriate links that facilitate co-operation at the
local, national and international levels, serving as a central
repository of germplasm collection and pertinent information.
That is why the project is co-ordinated by
INERA which has been mandated by CNRST that work with the
following partners : FNGN (The National Federation of Naam
Group), MARA (which has become the Ministry of Agriculture) and
M.E.E (Ministry of Environment and Water).
The pluridisciplinary and integrated
approaches
Research activities are carried out in an
integrated way following many intervention domains:
- Social science
: A discipline supporting phytogenetic
resources management in peasant environment. It is made up of
Socio-anthropological, socio-ethnological, socio-economic,
socio-political science. It favors the understanding of men’s
behaviour towards PGR.
- Biological science
: A discipline including crop
agronomy and physiology contributing to genetic improvement,
the conservation and use of plant genetic resources.
- Agro-ecosystems:
Including the ecosystems, the farming
systems, the fight against the harmful insects, the climates
and the crops geography. It permits to follow the effect of
the climate on the development of the genetic diversity.
Community participation in on-farm conservation of PGR
The participatory approach: Farmers
Organisations are encouraged to stimulate participatory research
of peasants and integrate them in the formal system of decision
making and responsibility in all forms of research and
management of phytogenetic resources.
The CBDC Project in Burkina Faso completed
its first period from January 1997 to December 1999. It has got
some valuable assets as mentioned in the following:
- CBDC-Programme philosophy on local cultivars management is
now integrated in national plant Genetic Resources Programme
and Strategies;
- CBDC component of Burkina Faso has contributed to
rehabilitation of cold room in CREAF-Kamboinse for ex situ
conservation;
- Technical files for field observations or/and different
enquires have been established;
- CBDC strategies are now integrated among NARS, NGOs and
farmers’ Organisations;
- Local varieties are already used to produce seeds since
year 2000;
- Every year, local landraces are collected by farmers
themselves in the sites of CBDC Project;
- The role of gender in participatory crop management is
better known so that the contribution of women is better
valorised;
- Farmers are now initiating local gene banks building and
their management.
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