Past, present and future criteria to breed crops for water-limited environments in West Africa
Asia's Green Revolution of the 1960s and 70s has largely bypassed West Africa, and "modem" (high-yielding, input responsive) germplasm has found comparatively little adoption, except for the small proportion of systems that are irrigated. It is unlikely, however, that breeding traditional-type materials for better performance in subsistence systems would have been more successful. The authors thus identify systems caught in the agricultural transition from subsistence to intensified, market-oriented production as being promising targets for crop improvement, and provide examples of original breeding objectives for cowpea, sorghum and upland rice. In each of these cases, breeders, with the help of physiologists, have developed plant-type concepts that combine increased yield potential and input responsiveness with certain traditional crop characteristics that are thought to remain essential during the agricultural transition. In the case of cowpea, dual-purpose varieties were developed that produce a good grain yield due to an erect plant habit, then produce enough new leaves to enable a second harvest of green foliage. For upland rice systems that are limited by labour shortages (mainly needed to control a weed flora that abounds due to shortened fallow periods), a weed competitive, high-yielding plant type was developed from Oryza sativa x O. glaberrima crosses. Lastly, sorghum breeders who previously eliminated photoperiod sensitivity from improved materials are now re-inserting sensitivity into plants having "modem" architecture, in order to allow for flexible sowing dates while maintaining an agro-ecologically optimal flowering date near the end of the wet season. The perspectives of these plant types, as well as the problem of under-funding for their realisation, are discussed.
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | conference_item biblioteca |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
Regional Institute
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| Subjects: | F30 - Génétique et amélioration des plantes, F01 - Culture des plantes, Oryza sativa, Vigna unguiculata, Sorghum bicolor, amélioration des plantes, variété, agriculture de transition, compétition végétale, mauvaise herbe, critère de sélection, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_5438, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_8247, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_7247, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_5956, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_8157, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_7868, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_35264, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_8347, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_1078, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_8355, |
| Online Access: | http://agritrop.cirad.fr/525368/ |
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