Impacts on farmer experimentation in agricultural and livestock cooperatives of Havana

Main Article Content

R. Ortiz

Abstract

The present challenge of plant breeding
approaches to strengthen varietal flow in our national
agriculture by means of more diverse, decentralized and low
agrochemical input productive systems. Farmers�?? active
participation in seed selection, experimentation, multiplication
and preservation is a viable choice to increase yields on the
basis of a wider varietal diversification. Producers�?? varietal
selection also strengthens its adaptation to the environmental
and socioeconomic conditions of Cuban productive systems.
The lack of an improved seed has given rise to a peasantry
seed supply system based on their own seed production of
different crops, either for consumption or the market. Thus,
there is a need to implement some plant breeding ways to
encourage the capacity of preserving, selecting and supplying
seeds to farmers, so that helping to establish diversity by
putting into practice some choices providing a fair participation
balance between farmers and plant breeders, which would
enable to complement the current Cuban plant breeding system.
Both, spontaneity and creativity developed by farmers from
different agricultural production cooperatives of Havana, after
attending several biodiversity fairs on maize and bean crops
celebrated at the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences,
proved farmers�?? good choice of the right genotypes for
sustainable conditions. Results of some study cases are also
presented, which showed how positive biodiversity is through
fairs and farmers�?? experiments to increase maize and bean
production and diversity in the agricultural productive
cooperatives of Havana.

Article Details

How to Cite
Ortiz, R. (2013). Impacts on farmer experimentation in agricultural and livestock cooperatives of Havana. Cultivos Tropicales, 24(4), 115–122. Retrieved from https://ediciones.inca.edu.cu/index.php/ediciones/article/view/555
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Original Article