Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment
PARTICIPATORY PLANT BREEDING MAINSTREAMING (PPBM):
Philippine Project
Project Location
12 Philippine Provinces
Project Duration
2008-2010
Implemented from 2008 to 2010, the Participatory Plant Breeding Mainstreaming aimed to empower farmers in 12 Philippine provinces in plant genetic resources (PGR) conservation, development and management and to broaden the genetic bases (in corn, rice and vegetables).
Specific objectives of the project were:
1. To development large-scale model of Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB) mainstreaming linked to market-based institutions;
2. To develop a pedagogical approach for market engagements;
3. To create technical, institutional, organizational and business models;
4. To create models for PPB mainstreaming at national level and support by plant breeding institutions;
5. To establish a national PPB programs; and
6. To pursue institutional and policy reforms.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
By 2009, 824 farmers had participated in PPB-oriented Farmer Field Schools (FFS) in 35 villages in 13 provinces in the Philippines. Most underwent three levels of field trials—cross breeds and selections—up to production level trial of good selections. In Sultan Kudarat, 484 FFS-PPB graduates did trials in 11,476 hectares of corn farms (41.2%) out of a total of 27,845 hectares of corn areas in the province (from PPBM evaluation.
SEARICE successfully partnered with the Philippine Department of Agriculture in integrating PPB into the government‘s KASALIKASAN program, specifically, the integration of PPB into the Farmer Field School (FFS) platforms. This partnership enhanced the PPB gains achieved in the CBDC-BUCAP in the Philippines.
Between 2008 and 2010, SEARICE, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, has conducted 35 FFS-IPM-PPB activities involving 824 farmers in 35 villages of 22 municipalities in 13 provinces (from PPBM evaluation).
In the year 2010, the PPBM program has been implemented in 7 provinces out of 82 total provinces of the country, in 10 municipalities, and 29 communities, covering a total of 666 farmer graduates in 29 FFS conducted. A total of 52 FFS have been conducted from 2008 to 2010. A follow-up FFS had been conducted after the previous FFS, to evaluate the materials generated from the previous FFS and deepen the discussion on plant genetics as well as the policies issues related to seeds and agriculture in general. Thereafter, most interested farmers in its respective communities did individual trials on PPB and PVS.
From the three years of PPBM implementation, a total of 21 government extension people took part of the project. The FFS PPB has served a venue for cooperation with local government units (LGUs) and working with LGUs has strengthened the promotion and implementation of the FFS activities in the municipalities. At the same time, these extension people have extensive experiences in local implementation of FFS on IPM over the years.