Ill., 3 ref. Summaries (Fr, En) CIAT, Unidad de Informacion y Documentacion, Seccion Servicios al Publico, A.A. 6713, Cali (Colombia)

The complexity of ecological, agronomic and socio-economic conditions of bean production in the Great Lakes represents a challenge for the development of var. which are both high yielding and acceptable to farmers. Farmer participation in the last stages of var. selection can solve this problem at least partially. Women farmers were invited to evaluate multilocational trials on the research station and took the chosen var. to their farms for home-testing according to their own principles of experimentation. Collaborators made use of a large range of var. (27 were chosen over 3 yr), some of them for very specific conditions, and yield advantages over the local mixtures were impressive. A comparison of a decentralized model for var. development involving farmers with the classic selection scheme of ISAR was initiated in 1990. Final results will be available in 1995 and will be compared in terms of costs, time to release, no. and performance of var. and impact on the farm. First results suggest that farmers are looking for a range of growth habits, grain sizes and colors, according to the purpose for which they want to use a var. It is concluded that breeders should offer a wide range of genetically diverse material and leave final selection to the farmers

French

AGRIS Collection