ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the last century, plant breeding gradually began to be removed from farmers’ hands, with the result that what had been done by many people in many diverse places began to be done by fewer and fewer people in relatively few places (Ceccarelli et al., 2012). Today, participatory plant breeding has brought farmers back into breeding (Almekinders and Hardon, 2006; Conny and Hardon, 2006). At the moment, farmers are participating in research activities in the field of seed conservation, plant/animal breeding, seeds selection, varieties/crops diffusion, farming system improvements and business management, opening multiple windows to maximise positive effects initiated with participatory plant breeding. Participatory plant breeding emerged as an alternative to reach better impact in heterogeneous environments. The heterogeneity of farming systems and farming itself forced scientists to go beyond their own discipline and work and interact with others, including the farmers, to improve their livelihoods. In practice, farmers and scientist from fields as diverse as sociology, economy, anthropology, agronomy and business management have been inspiring plant breeding, thus becoming a modern science field producing new knowledge and practices based on collective action. This chapter provides an example of how participatory plant breeding led to strengthening local innovation systems in order to improve food security in a centralised socioeconomic system, using Cuba as an example.
