Seeds of change – in memoriam of Dr Anja Christinck
We dedicate this panel “seeds of change” to late Dr. Anja Christinck for her seminal work on agrobiodiversity, participatory breeding and organic farming. Based on her research undertaken with farmers in western Rajasthan on management of diversity in pearl millet cultivars, she inspired practitioners, scholars and activists likewise. With her unique approach to teaching, consultancy and collaborative writing while based in the tiny village of Gichenbach, she reached out worldwide and contributed towards the development of seed networks, promotion of farmers rights and cultivating agrobiodiversity. With this panel we honor her thorough knowledge, methodological innovation and friendly persistence to promote a holistic approach to social-ecological relations. We invite you to share stories and listen to research results motivated by her.
Anja passed away on the 19th of August, 2022 in Germany. We do invite you to share your online condolences and warm memories at https://www.seed4change.de/
Learning processes to foster ‘localised’ innovation in food and farming systems
Brigitte Kaufmann1, Anja Christinck †2, Margareta Lelea3, Christian Hülsebusch4
1German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture (DITSL), Germany
2formerly: German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture (DITSL)
3German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture (DITSL), Germany
4German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture (DITSL), Germany
Food and agriculture systems are human activity systems that are created, maintained and continuously changed, adapted and developed by "real" actors through their activities. Research that engages these actors in collaborative learning processes can pave the way for effective "localisation" of innovations.
The term "local" is used here to emphasise the contextuality of innovations, i.e. their validity within a particular local configuration that is influenced by environmental, economic and social conditions, by management strategies and techniques, by organisational forms, normative ideas and other factors. Exploring the contextual factors that need to be considered when trying to make innovation 'work' in a particular situation requires a variety of approaches, knowledge and skills.
In our work with the late Dr Anja Christinck, we conceptualised and used collaborative learning to systematically 'localise' or 'contextualise' innovations so that they become meaningful and relevant to real world actors in their respective local contexts. In this paper, we show that different types of innovations need to be contextualised to different degrees, depending on whether a first, second or third learning loop is required to integrate an innovation into an activity system.
Effective contextualisation of innovation processes must start with the identification of all relevant actors in a human activity system and their clearly defined active participation in the collaborative research process. The knowledge of the different actors is integrated, i.e. explicit knowledge is shared and an attempt is made to make explicit tacit knowledge that is normally embedded in activities and processes. Co-creation of knowledge can be achieved by experimenting with new technological options, processes or organisational structures in the local context so that new knowledge is put into practice. Conceptualising this process helps to advance the scientific understanding of innovation processes in food and farming systems.
Keywords: Collaborative learning, contextualisation, innovation, low external input systems
Pearl Millet Breeding for Agroecology: Biodiversity considerations in West Africa
Eva Weltzien, Kassari Ango, Inoussa Drabo, Ghislain Kanfany, Moussa Daouda Sanogo, Ahmad Issaka, Fred Rattunde
Agroecology as a movement and a science uses environmental and social principles for guiding food system transformation (Wezel et al. 2020). The biodiversity principle addresses the maintenance and enhancement of genetic resources for functional diversity in agroecosystems over time and space. The agroecological movement, while focusing on strengthening farmers’ seed management options, rarely uses support from scientific breeding. This study seeks to understand how national breeding programs in West Africa address biodiversity issues relevant to agroecological transformation. Semi-structured interviews with pearl millet breeders, farmer-organization and NGO representatives from Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger provided the data for this study. All breeding programs are collaborating with farmers to identify preferred traits and set priorities for variety development for specific agroecologies or uses. All of these programs use local germplasm as the base for their breeding populations,and are thus contributing to conservation of these genepools. They also introduce new genetic diversity for new resistances to biotic and abiotic stresses. All breeding programs evaluate their new selections in collaboration with farmer organizations, and thus support decentralized farmer decision making for seed production and dissemination. These findings show that breeding programs and agroecology activists share many concerns. Thus, there is a solid basis for enhancing biodiversity through more direct collaboration between farmers, activists and pearl millet breeders in West Africa. These opportunities will be discussed.
Wezel A, Herren BG, Kerr RB, et al (2020) Agroecological principles and elements and their implications for transitioning to sustainable food systems. A review. Agron Sustain Dev 40:40. doi.org/10.1007/s13593-020-00646-z
Strategies for enhancing productivity and resilience of pearl millet in stress environments of Rajasthan, India
O.P. Yadav
ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur, Rajasthan 342 003 (India), Email: director.cazri@icar.gov.in opyadav21@yahoo.com
Pearl millet is valued for its nutrient-rich grain for human consumption and its green fodder and dry stover for livestock and forms the basis of livelihood and nutritional security in arid and semi-arid regions of South Asia and Sub-Sahara Africa pearl millet cultivation which is largely concentrated in India, Niger, Sudan, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad. The crop experiences different levels of drought stress during entire period of growth and development. The purpose of this article is to assess the impact of research strategies in pearl millet improvement targeting Rajasthan state of India to assess the usefulness of these strategies for western and central Africa where pearl millet is cultivated in similar agro-climatic conditions.
Strategies to enhance the productivity in stress environments have centered on development of new cultivars (largely hybrids with niches areas for open-pollinated varieties) with higher production potential and built-in resistance to diseases. Strategic use of genetic resources from India and Sub-Sahara Africa remain the key points in pearl millet breeding of diverse hybrids and open pollinated cultivars. A large number of cultivars have been developed and deployed in Rajasthan during last six decades leading to productivity increase. High adoption of improved cultivars in risk-prone arid regions of India highlights the role of improved cultivars in raising crop productivity even in marginal areas. These results have great significance to justify similar investment is research and development efforts in pearl millet for Sub-Sahara Africa.
Given pearl millet becoming more vulnerable to ever changing climatic conditions, enhancing its resilience to drought remains the key issue. Understand pearl millet response to drought and dissection of drought tolerance physiology and phenology has helped in identifying target traits for manipulation in breeding for drought tolerance. The role of adapted germplasm has been emphasized for drought breeding and hybridization of adapted landraces with selected elite genetic material has been stated to amalgamate adaptation and productivity. Recent advancement in high-throughput phenotyping and genotyping platforms has made it more realistic to apply markers assisted selection in conventional breeding programs targeting drought tolerance.
Seeds in organic farming in Indonesia -
Falling through the sieves of regulation and practice
Martina Padmanabhan
Critical Development Studies – Southeast Asia, Universität Passau martina.padmanabhan@uni-passau.de
Organic agriculture relies on agrobiodiversity to unfold the potential of site-specific farming practices. Seeds are a central aspect of these social-ecological artefacts as the outcome of hundreds of years of intimate interaction between people and plants. The regulatory framework officially governing the emerging organic sector poses challenges to the procurement, exchange and handling of seeds in Indonesia. Based on extended interviews with breeders, farmers, activists and entrepreneurs in organic farming between 2017 and 2019, I reveal the contradictory seed management at the level of governance, and politics as well as innovative practices for transformation. As Laksmana (2023) shows, there is insufficient clarity in organic farming regulations on what constitutes organic seeds (BSN 2016). The Law No. 12/1992 on the Plant Cultivation System in Indonesia makes it illegal for farmers to use non-state-registered seeds. Organic farmers run in danger to be prosecuted for attempting to become more independent by storing and using their own seeds, while the state simultaneously encourages the use of local resources in organic agriculture. On the other hand, Laksmana and Padmanabhan (2021, 87–88) demonstrate how seed sovereignty, defined as farmers’ rights to access, reproduce, and save seeds (Kloppenburg 2010) becomes central to farmers identifying and engaging with the concept of food sovereignty. Thinking through different concepts of seed governance aligned to private property, stewardship and commons, I juxtapose the regulatory ideas with the practices and imaginaries of practicing farmers, activists and breeders to throw light on the contradictory and potentially harmful environment disincentivizing agrobiodiversity maintenance and use.
Keywords: Agrobiodiversity, breeding, Indonesia