Project no. CT-2003-502444

Project acronym: CONPAB

Project title: Consultative Workshop on Participatory Plant Breeding

Instrument: Specific Support Action

Thematic Priority: B.1 Integrated management of limited water resources

Title of report: Final Report

Period covered: from 01.05.2004 to 31.12.2005

Start date of project: 01.05.2004Duration: 20 months

Project coordinator name: Luis Esteruelas

Project coordinator organisation name: Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza / International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies

Revision: Definitive

1

6.1 Publishable final activity report

1. Project execution

The objective of the Specific Support Action was to establish a working group of scientists responsible for plant breeding in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Greece, Italy, France and Spain that will develop plans and strategies on how to develop PPB programs in drought prone areas in a one-month Consultative Workshop in Syria, which is hosting one of the most advanced PPB programs. In the Workshop, the working group has been exposed to the implementation of PPB on the ground, to its technical aspects, and to the reaction of farmers, scientists, extension organizations, seed companies, and research managers.

Given that the Workshop should take place in May for agronomic reasons and that the contract was signed on 6 April 2004, the EC agreed, upon our request, to postpone it by 8 months, up to December 2005, the end of the SSA.

The work plan has been fully completed. The first year of the project (1 May 2004 – 30 April 2005) was devoted to the preparation of the Workshop, with the establishment of the Agenda and with the selection of the participants (WP1 and WP2). The workshop (WP3) took place in Aleppo (Syria) at the ICARDA headquarters on 24th April - 13th May 2005, with the participation of 15 scientists from six countries (three from Egypt, Jordan and Syria, and two from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria). The scientists represented crops such as wheat, barley, lentil, faba bean and maize, and disciplines ranging from plant breeding, social science, genetic resources, and biotechnology. The objectives of the workshop were (1) to create a group of scientists in a number of Mediterranean countries committed to participatory plant breeding, (2) to formulate plans and strategies on how to implement participatory plant breeding in crops that have strategic importance for the drought prone areas of the region, and (3) to widely disseminate methodologies, plans and strategies.

The other programmed Workpackages, WP4 (PPB Strategy) and WP5 (Dissemination of results) have been completed. For WP5, and given the financial availability, other non initially scheduled activities have also been organized:

-Initiation of a Participatory Plant Breeding Program in Algeria on both Durum Wheat and Barley

-One Mini workshop for Policy Makers and University Staff in Algeria

-Institutionalization of the existing Participatory Plant Breeding activities in Jordan

2. Dissemination and use / 6.2 Final plan for using and disseminating the knowledge

Section 1 - Exploitable knowledge and its Use

(This section will only present exploitable results, defined as knowledge having a potential for industrial or commercial application in research activities or for developing, creating or marketing a product or process or for creating or providing a service)

As has been explained before, the objective of the SSA was to develop plans and strategies on how to develop PPB programs in drought prone areas.

The generated knowledge can be used by administrations, farmers associations or individual farmers but does not lead to marketable products, patents or services.

Section 2 – Dissemination of knowledge

(The dissemination activities section should include past and future activities and will normally be in the form of a table maintained by the coordinator or any other person entrusted with controlling the dissemination activities)

The objective of the WP5 was to widely disseminate methodologies, plans and strategies. In particular, the WP5 aimed at the dissemination of the results and conclusions of the project on web pages, the annual progress reports of the two Centres, and a comprehensive final report. Information will be made available to users (i.e., breeders), the scientific community, and the public by means of scientific publications and presentations at scientific meetings, international conferences and workshops. The participating groups have close contacts with breeding activities and also relationships with breeders in private companies and public research institutes. These contacts will facilitate the dissemination of results. A report will be prepared for professional journals aimed at breeders upon the conclusion of the project.

The Deliverables associated to WP are reports, CD, WEB page ( brochure. Milestones and expected results are reports, web page, and CDs. A list of presentations at scientific meetings, international conferences and workshops is given in Annex 1. The start up page of the CD is shown in Annex 2.

In addition to the programmed dissemination activities and given the availability of funding, three new activities, not programmed initially, have been proposed to and accepted by the European Commission:

1. Initiation of a Participatory Plant Breeding Program in Algeria on both Durum Wheat and Barley

2. One Mini workshop for Policy Makers and University Staff in Algeria

3. Institutionalization of the existing Participatory Plant Breeding activities in Jordan

The Participatory Plant Breeding Program in Algeria on both Durum Wheat and Barley was started as planned and details are given in Annex 3.

The Mini workshop for Policy Makers and University Staff in Algeria was held in Algiers on December 24, 2005 with 26 participants (Annex 4).

The institutionalization of the existing Participatory Plant Breeding activities in Jordan started in both barley and wheat while the PPB activities were extended to chickpea (Annex 5)

Section 3 - Publishable results

(This section provides a publishable summary of each exploitable result the project has generated, and should therefore be included only when the consortium is ready to publicise and have taken the appropriate measures to protect their IPR)

Not relevant for this SSA.

6.3 Final management report

(The coordinator will also submit within 45 days of the end of the project a Final management report consolidating the costs of all the contractors taking into account any adjustments made by the Commission, in an aggregate form covering the entire duration of the project. The format for this report is the same as the format used for the Periodic management report Section 2.)

Section 1 – Justification of major cost items and resources

(Provide a justification of the major costs incurred and resources deployed by each contractor, linking them to activities implemented by each contractor and explaining their necessity.

This should include the following:

  • A brief description of the work performed by each contractor during the period. This should be addressed at the workpackage level, and the work specification should be detailed enough to justify the resources employed - “Contributing to workpackage X” or “Contributing YY% to workpackage X” is too unspecific. Rather e.g. “Developed the ... module for…in workpackage X”.

Brief description of the work performed by each contractor during the period.

The objective of the Specific Support Action was to establish a working group of scientists responsible for plant breeding in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Greece, Italy, France and Spain that will develop plans and strategies on how to develop PPB programs in drought prone areas in a one-month Consultative Workshop in Syria, which is hosting one of the most advanced PPB programs. In the Workshop, the working group has been be exposed to the implementation of PPB on the ground, to its technical aspects, and to the reaction of farmers, scientists, extension organizations, seed companies, and research managers. The first year of the project (1 May 2004 – 30 April 2005) was devoted to the preparation of the Workshop, with the establishment of the Agenda and with the selection of the participants (WP1 and WP2). The workplan has been completed during the second period (1 May – 31 December 2005). The workshop (WP3) took place in Aleppo (Syria) at the ICARDA headquarters on 24th April - 13th May 2005, with the participation of 15 scientists from six countries (three from Egypt, Jordan and Syria, and two from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria). The scientists represented crops such as wheat, barley, lentil, faba bean and maize, and disciplines ranging from plant breeding, social science, genetic resources, and biotechnology. The objectives of the workshop were (1) to create a group of scientists in a number of Mediterranean countries committed to participatory plant breeding, (2) to formulate plans and strategies on how to implement participatory plant breeding in crops that have strategic importance for the drought prone areas of the region, and (3) to widely disseminate methodologies, plans and strategies. The other programmed Workpackages, WP4 (PPB Strategy) and WP5 (Dissemination of results) have been completed. For WP5, and given the financial availability, other non initially scheduled activities have also been organised:

-Initiation of a Participatory Plant Breeding Program in Algeria on both Durum Wheat and Barley

-One Mini workshop for Policy Makers and University Staff in Algeria

-Institutionalisation of the existing Participatory Plant Breeding activities in Jordan

  • Explanatory note on any major cost items such as important equipment purchases, major travel costs, large consumable items etc., justifying their necessity to the project.
  • A tabular overview of budgeted costs and actual costs, by contractor and by major cost item including personnel (see Appendix 2, Table 3).

  • A tabular overview of budgeted person-months and actual person-months, by contractor and by workpackage (see Appendix 2, Table 4). The budgeted person-months should normally be taken from Annex I to the contract.

For AC contractors, in addition estimate the number of person-months of permanent staff working on the project.

No personnel has been budgeted in this SSA. Regarding permanent staff, the number of person-months working on the project has been:

Work- Package / Workplan List / Lead
contractor
No[1] / Person-months[2] / Start
month[3] / End
month[4] / Deliv-erable
No[5]
1 / Planning Meeting / 1 / 3 / 0 / 1 / 1
2 / Working Group / 1 / 2 / 1 / 3 / 2
3 / Consultative Workshop / 1 / 5 / 4 / 6 / 3
4 / PPB Strategy / 1 / 4 / 7 / 9 / 4
5 / CD, WEB page, brochure / 1 / 2 / 8 / 12 / 5
TOTAL / 16

Section 2 – Form C Financial statement per activity for the contractual reporting period, to be completed by each contractor (see Appendices 5-11)

(Provide for each contractor in the project the Form C Financial statement as set out in Annex VI to the contract. (If special clause 23 has beenused then financial statements from members of the organisation should also be provided and the summary financial statement from the contractor).

Audit certificates are to be submitted with the Form C if required for this period in Article 7 of the contract (or for any contractor whose EC contribution is more than € 750,000 for the period). Audit certificates must cover the costs incurred during all precedent periods for which audit certificates have not been provided.)




Audit certificate





Section 3 – Summary financial report (see Appendices 5-11)


6.4 Final report on the distribution of the Community’s contribution

Not appliable for this SSA (only 1 partner).

ANNEXES

Annex 1

Presentations at scientific meetings, international conferences and workshops

Dr. S. Ceccarelli attended the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Agronomy in Salt Lake City (USA) where he gave a presentation on “Participatory Plant Breeding: a Fast Track to Variety Development” co-authored by Dr. S. Grando (Nov 6-10).

Dr. S. Ceccarelli visited Cornell University (Ithaca, NY, USA) where he gave a seminar on “Participatory Plant Breeding and Drought Resistance” at the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics (Nov 14-16).

Dr. S. Ceccarelli attended the European Seminar on Seeds “Liberate Diversity” (Poitiers, France) and gave a presentation on “Participatory Plant Breeding-an example of demand-driven research” (Nov 24-25).

Mr. M. Maatougui attended the CPWF workshop on: “Enhancing human and ecological well-being in Africa through sustainable increases in water productivity” and the “CPWF project leaders’ annual meeting”. Both events were organized by the CPWF-IWMI and the National Water Research Center of Egypt. Mr. Maatougui gave a presentation on the activities of the project “Water productivity improvement in the Atbara basin of Eritrea” which is based on participatory research.

Ceccarelli S. Participatory plant breeding. Lecture presented at the Workshop on “Barley research in Iran: Priorities and strategies,” July 2005, Seed and Plant Improvement Institute (SPII), Karaj, Iran.

Ceccarelli S. Participatory plant breeding. Lecture at the Changes Agent in Rural Development training Course in C. Obregón, Sonora, Mexico (August 2005)

Ceccarelli S., Grando S. and Baum Participatory Plant Breeding in Water-Limited Environments. Paper presented at the 2nd International Conference on Integrated Approaches to Sustain and Improve Plant Production under Drought Stress (INTERDROUGHT II); Rome, Italy, September 24-28, 2005.

Annex 2

The opening page of the CD

Annex 3

Initiation of a Participatory Plant Breeding Program in Algeria

Barley seed involving mostly lines arising from crosses made at ICARDA using the main landraces extensively used in Algeria were dispatched to ITGC and INRAA and were prepared for planting at 4 farmer locations and one back-up location (ITGC Station of Sidi Bel Abbes). Planting of this later location was done first as it also comprises168 lines to be increased for next growing season (2006/07). The other barley locations were planted in farmers’ fields of three different agro-climatic zones of Sidi Bel Abbes and Tlemcen provinces (western Algeria).

A Durum wheat PPB trial was organized by Dr Benbelkacem from breeding material available with him. Only one location was planted in the area of Constantine (eastern Algeria) for this growing season. It is planned that next year the Setif region (high plateaus) will be included for barley and bread wheat as would be the area of Constantine and Oum El Bouaghi for bread wheat and barley, respectively.

Annex 4

Mini workshop for Policy Makers and University Staff in Algeria

1. Objectives

  • Review the plant breeding process in Algeria
  • Get participants acquainted with PPB and its various aspects and implications, followed by an extended discussion on advantages, disadvantages, possibility of its adoption in the National Agricultural Research System, and the possibility of introducing PPB courses in the Plant Breeding Courses provided by educations institutions.
  • Discuss aspects of practical implementation of PPB and formation of provisional working teams

2. Workshop program

09:00:09:15Registration of the participants

09:30-09:45 Opening by DG ITGC

09:45-10:15Analysis of the actual Breeding Process used by ITGC in Algeria

10:15-10:30Coffee break

10:30-10:45Welcome from DG of INRAA

10:45-11:15PPB an innovative process in cereal breeding

11:15-12:00Presentation and discussion on a proposed PPB process

12:00-13:30Lunch break

13:30-14:30Round table discussion on practical aspects of PPB implementation

14:30-14:45Coffee break

14:45-15:45Continued round table discussion and consensus on PPB for Algeria

15:45-16:00Closing session, DG of ITGC

3. Participants

26 persons (list below) participated in the Mini Workshop including breeders (9 from ITGC and 7 from INRAA), developers (1 from the Ministry of Agriculture, 2 from ITGC and 5 from the National and Regional Chambers of Agriculture) and 2 seed production specialists (ITGC). 14 participants were women and 12 were men.

N° / NOM / PRENOM / organization / FONCTION
01 / Benzohra / Aek / Itgc/ El Khemis / Filiere Appui
02 / Sabour / Noureddine / Itgc/Beni Slimane / Filiere Appui
03 / Bouchouika / Saad / Itgc/Khroub / Filiere Semences
04 / Kentour / Abdia / Itgc Alger / Filiere Semences
05 / Gagaa / Yasmina / Itgc Khroub / Amelioration
06 / Kehili / Nadia / Itgc Khroub / Amelioration
07 / Meziani / Mouna / Itgc Alger / Amelioration
08 / Nedir / Tassadit / Itgc Oued Smar / Amelioration
09 / Fertout / Nadjia / Itgc/S. Bel Abbes / Amelioration
10 / Menaceur / Djazia / Itgc Tiaret / Amelioration
11 / Khaldoun / Abdelhamid / Itgc Alger / C/Dept: Amelioration
12 / Bellah / Fadila / Itgc Alger / C/Service /Amelioration
13 / Menad / Abdelkader / Itgc /Saida / Amelioration
14 / Djeghri / Nawel / Ministry Dfrv / Ing. Developpement
15 / Berkani / Saliha / Inraa Alger / Charge D'etude
16 / Khaldoun / Saida / Inraa Alger / Attache De Recherche
17 / Djenadi / Chafika / Inraa Alger / Charge D'etude
18 / Oukil / Salah / Inraa Alger / Charge De Recherche
19 / Rahal-Bouziane / Hafida / Inraa Alger / Attache De Recherche
20 / Labdi / Mohamed / Inraa S.Bel Abbes / Unite De Recherche
21 / Hamou / Mimoun / Inraa S. Bel Abbes / Directeur De Station
22 / Ran / Yahia / Caw Bouira / Association Cereales
23 / Moumou / Bellaha / Caw Bouira / Secretaire General
24 / Saad / Missoum / Cna / Economiste
25 / Zaidi / Fadhila / Cna / Chef De Section Pv
26 / Bouali / Mustapha / Caw/Tiaret / Association Cereales

4. Review of the breeding process used by ITGC

The current cereal breeding methodology used by ITGC is shown below; it has two variants:-one relying on interaction with ICARDA through introduced finished germplasm such as nurseries and yield trials and the other one based on local crosses (few and mostly on durum wheat): In both situations, selection of future varieties takes a long period of time and farmers (users) are not involved in the selection process and are exposed to selected plant material only at the last stage (verification trials and demonstrations). No selection is performed under farmer’s field conditions.

The participants recognized these facts and realized that many varieties have been selected and released (more than 20 in bread and durum wheat and more than 10 in barley) but remain unused by farmers.

5. PPB Presentation

It was centered on the following main attribute: it is a“different process of doing plant breeding” characterized by the following features:

  • Done to address limited environments where conventional breeding has not brought and cannot bring tangible success
  • Breeding objectives are set with the farmers right at the beginning of the process and selection is done by the farmers
  • Most activities are done in farmers’ fields
  • Final output is selection of either populations or pure lines
  • It is suitable for both self and cross pollinated crops
  • It requires enough variability and sizeable numbers of plant material to be tested (much more than the number of entries composing farm trials)
  • Evaluation and monitoring are done using appropriate scientific statistical designs and analysis tools
  • It is practised on barley in a number of countries of the WANA region

The following main advantages of PPB were outlined and recognized as relevant by the participants, in a consensus way: