Farmer's Eye and Breeder's Eye - Fields of Knowledge Exchange as a Condition of a Participatory Breeding Approach

Summary

With the change to organic agriculture, the diversity of local conditions becomes more important. Local adapted varieties are necessary. But breeding
for this demand is not profitable for a conventional breeding strategy. An alternative can be a participatory breeding approach (PPB). Evolved in the
context of international development cooperation, this approach is increasingly discussed in the European context.
Communication between farmers and breeders is a key issue in participatory breeding. Farmer`s and breeder`s eye have different perspectives on the
plants and different knowledge gained through experience. Those perspectives and experiences need to be exchanged. As an outcome of the
investigation of “The breeder`s eye” on the example of the crossbreeding of self-fertilizing cereals from a knowledge sociology perspective three
levels of consciousness could be described: vegetational consciousness, generational consciousness and consciousness in hereditary flow
(Timmermann, 2006). The framework of these three levels allows to understand the various levels of breeding behaviour and how the breeders learn
and develop their breeding practices. Based on this results, fields of knowledge exchange between farmer and breeder, their limits and possibilities for
further development can be worked out.