CHAPTER TWO
THE PLACE OF SORGHUM, PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS AND IDEAL PLANT AND VARIETY TRAITS, AS PERCEIVED BY FARMERS IN SEMI-ARID PARTS OF KENYA
effective than the top down methods, even if they are slower. Inappropriate research and extension methods have had a negative effect on sorghum production in Kenya.
Since 1938, considerable resources have been spent on sorghum research in the east African region to address sorghum farmers' needs for new varieties. However, early researchers did not use participatory processes,and therefore sorghum farmers generally did not accept the outcomes of these early research efforts. Farmers still maintain and grow their low yielding varieties instead of high yielding varieties developed by the national sorghum and millets research programmes. Had farmers adopted the new, high yielding sorghum varieties, then sorghum production would have been much higher and the frequency of food shortages experienced in semi-arid parts of Kenya would have been lessened.
Research methods that involve its farmer clientele in product development should be used to ensure that waste of resources is minimized in research. Specifically, sorghum farmers should benefit from sorghum research in Kenya. Rapid methodologies that ensure farmers' participation in the research processes, ensuring that farmer' sorghum requirements are recognized and incorporated into the research objectives should be adopted in research and extension so that future research can benefit sorghum farmers. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methodologies can tune research to address farmers' requirements in Kenya. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methodologies are a mix of approaches, methods, and theories that aim to speed up rural development. They include methods and approaches such as traditional research methodologies (Zazueta, 1988), consociation theories (Friere, 1970), agro-ecosystems analysis (Conway, 1990; Chambers, 1983) and district focus for rural development (Republic of Kenya,1984). Subsequently, Participatory Plant Breeding methods should be adopted.
Participatory rural appraisal is founded on the assumptions that:
1. Participation of technology consumers enhances adoption of the technology;
2. Indigenous knowledge systems improve project conceptualization and implementation;
3. Participatory identification of needs, priorities and action plans minimizes conflict, enhances project ownership and partnerships among stakeholders;
4. Success of group activities triggers non-members to adopt the technology and/or initiate parallel projects;
5. Group activities strengthen linkages among communities, the administration and agents of change in development projects;
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Self monitoring and evaluation properties of participatory methods keep projects timely, on course and productive (Muthoka,2002).
Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB) involves participation of both farmers and scientists in plant breeding. In PPB, farmers can be involved in selecting new genotypes from material that is grown in their localities or on-station (Maurya et al., 1988; Joshi and Witcombe, 1995). Farmers may select specific plants or varieties from among finished varieties or from segregating populations. In PPB, breeders contribute genetic variability and their scientific skills to manage the variability, whereas farmers contribute breeding goals and appropriate on-farm selection environments (Atlinet al.,2001).Participatory plant breeding has evolved to ensure that breeders do not breed varieties which are inappropriate to farmers' requirements and perceptions in a particular productionarea.
Two strategies are used in PPB:
1. Selectionfrom many crosses involving few progenies each, and
2. Selection from many progenies that are generated from one or two most potent crosses.
The former is applied when the potential of crosses is unknown, and the later when the potential is known. The latter strategy has been found to be more successful in PPB (Witcombe and Virk,2001).
Participatory plant breeding methodologies have been used to select and promote crop varieties (Witcombe et al., 1999; Kitch et al., 1998; Joshi et al., 1997). They have also been used to conserve crop biodiversity on farm (Sperling et al., 1993; Witcombe and Joshi, 1996). Participatory plant breeding was not constrained by replication, number of environments or type of selecting groups (Kitch et al., 1998). In addition, farmers and professional plant breeders showed similar selection intensity (Kitchet al., 1998).
Participatory plant breeding methodologies have been successfully used in selecting for earliness, uniform maturity, high yield and yield components. Varieties developed by PPB were superior in germination, seedling growth rate and tiller production (Joshi et al., 1997; Witcombe et al., 1999). Plant height, milling recovery, grain and cooking traits were important cereal crops' selection criteria in PPB (Joshiet al.,1997;Witcombe et al.,1999), and yield was not the most important farmer criterion (Johnson et al., 1968; Joshi et al., 1997; Kitch et al., 1998). Participatory plant breeding was never in conflict with farmer activities (Kitch et al., 1998; Muthoka, 2002). Participatory plant breeding approaches were consistent, consensus building and democratic (Kitch et al., 1998). They cost less
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and showed greater cultivar adoption than conventional breeding methods (Witcombe et al. 1999;Joshi et al., 1997).
Farmers are almost as good in variety selection as formal breeders.They would critique the prevailing sorghum varieties and propose a practical model for their farming system.
Potentially the strengths and weaknesses of new and farmers' varieties would be revealed in PRA meetings. The goal of the PRA meetings was to establish if hybrid technology would be viable in the farming system and the role of farmers a sorghum hybrid development process in ensuring that the hybrid technology developed was appropriate to their needs. The specific objectives of the study were to:
1. Find out the value of sorghum in a multiple-crop, semi-arid farming system and identify potential for expanding sorghum production;
2. Identify and prioritize sorghum production constraints in the farming system;
3. Identify traits preferred by farmers in desirable sorghum model cultivars, and
4. Conceive farmers concept of a desirable sorghum cultivar The hypotheses tested were:
1. There is scope for expanding sorghum production in semi-arid Kenya, and
2. Farmers are aware of production constraints to sorghum production 3. Farmers know the traits they want in preferred sorghum cultivars for
their environments and can describe the traits
4. Farmer popular cultivars are based on a predictable concept