Description
This book consists of an introduction, 11 case studies, and a conclusion. The introduction and conclusion were written by Dr. Ronnie Vernooy and Dr. Yiching Song, who have been collaborators for more than two decades. They introduce the origin of this book and the major changes, new trends and features of participatory plant breeding in the past 20 years. Chapters 1 to 7 are global case studies, from Africa, South America, and South and Southeast Asian countries. Cases collected from China are presented in Chapters 8 to 11, reflecting and building on Dr. Yiching Song and her team’s exploration on community seed bank establishment in Southwest China and farmer participatory seed selection and plant breeding. The book is not thick, but very rich in substance. I believe it will be very helpful to all those who are engaged in agricultural biodiversity conservation, participatory crop breeding and community development in China and beyond.
