Participatory varietal selection (PVS) in potato crop

Main Article Content

C. de la Fé

Abstract

The varietal selection performed by farmers based
on their own criteria, known as participatory varietal selection
(PVS), has become quite interesting within Cuban agricultural
environment and all over the world, for its deep contribution
to increase local diversity. However, due to its efficiency, there
is not enough information about it. Therefore, the present paper
was mainly conducted to study its efficiency specifically on
potato crop. In December 2005, a demonstrative plot was
planted with 73 commercial and noncommercial potato varieties
at the areas from �??Cultivos Varios�?� Enterprise, Batabanó,
Havana. At harvest time, in March 2006, the breeders from
INCA evaluated the following characters: commercial and
noncommercial tuber number and total tuber weight to calculate
yield per hectare. Also, some other characters as tolerance to
Alternaria solani, damages by potato scab, tuber shape, co-
lor and appearance were taken into account. The selection
was performed before harvest by 26 farmers from La Palma,
Pinar del Río. In general, these results proved farmers�?? great
capacity to combine several characters at the visual selection
process, so that they can differentiate the best performing
varieties among a group of them. Other results are shown in
the paper related to different percentages of selected
individuals.

Article Details

How to Cite
de la Fé, C. (2012). Participatory varietal selection (PVS) in potato crop. Cultivos Tropicales, 28(3), 77–82. Retrieved from https://ediciones.inca.edu.cu/index.php/ediciones/article/view/304
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Original Article