Devex: Can elevating farmers' voices revolutionize crop design?

Across the world, agricultural scientists are starting to work backward.

Improved crops that take decades to produce through labs and field trials are often rejected by the farmers who need them most. They might be pest-resistant, but take too long to cook. Drought-tolerant, but require expensive fertilizers. And high-yield, but with leaves that are too small to eat.

But now, many are shifting the way they design hybrid crops by involving farmers at the very start of the process instead of years after a solution has already been created by scientists in a lab.

But now, many are shifting the way they design hybrid crops by involving farmers at the very start of the process instead of years after a solution has already been created by scientists in a lab.

“It’s not easy — the process is convoluted and challenging. But at this point, we have no option but to make sure everyone has a voice,” said Dr. Biswanath Das, a breeding network coordinator with CGIAR Accelerated Breeding Initiative.

“We’re in the middle of a kind of transition point, where we’re trying to understand better what farmers’ preferences are,” said Das.“The changing climate has made it imperative for us to better understand what farmers want, and what could drive their adoption further…. The idea is that [breeders] will use these target product profiles to make their next set of decisions.”

Above is a summary of the article published on here on Devex.