Names of varieties provided by farmers

For each of the two crop they selected, farmers where asked about the names and the numbers of varieties they known, they grow; and about the numbers of varieties existing in their village and in the whole country. They were requested to provide dedicated names name in local language when they knew it, and otherwise to provide any appellation they commonly use. For the two last questions (village and country), it was indicated to farmers that only a rough estimation of numbers was needed.

A total of 630 distinct locutions was cited by farmers as naming or describing varieties: 267 for cassava, 207 for banana, 92 for coconut and 32 for cocoa and oil palm. By eliminating the obvious duplicates, the total number of locutions was reduced to 513. For instance, in the case of coconut, the locutions “Ghana”, Ghanéen”, “Cocotier Ghanéen” were replaced by “Ghana”.

Among the 2218 locutions given by farmers for the 5 crops together, only 28% are traditional names in local languages. For the remaining, 11% are names of political people (Yacé, Houphouet, Gbabo), 10 % are names of countries (Ghana, Brazil…), 7% refers to culinary properties (foutou, attiéké...), 6% are names institutions of companies (CNRA, Anader, Sicor…), 6% were described as “local” or “from the village”, 5% were name of commercial and modern varieties. The type of locution used varies a lot according to the different crops.

The file containing the data analysed can be downloaded on Excel format, ranked either by interviews or by crops and varieties.

Typology of locutions used by Ivorian farmers

 to describe the varieties of five crops:

 banana, cassava, cocoa, coconut and oil palm

 (in percentage of the total number of locutions cited).

Typology of locutions	Examples of locutions	All 5 crops	Cas-sava	Ba- nana	Co- coa	Coco-nut	Oil palm
local language	assimanana, agninnin, apkêkpênon	28	40	40	0	0	5
Person (political)	Yace, Houphouet, Gbabo	11	21	0	0	0	0
Country	Ghana, France, Israel, Brazil	10	1	0	64	10	2
Culinary	attiéké, foutou, plôko-plôkô	7	5	23	0	0	0
Institutions	Cnra, Anader	6	2	1	20	4	37
Village local	local, villageois	6	0	3	1	29	24
Modern variety	mercedes, bocou, hybride	5	1	0	7	29	5
City region	Bonoua, Bingerville, Konakry	5	8	3	0	1	1
Other	pretty mama, sweet potato	4	7	2	2	0	1
Precocity	1 year, 6 months	4	7	0	4	0	0
Color	purple, yellow, red	4	4	6	0	5	1
Shape and other traits	roundish, short, without seeds, 2 bunches	3	0	14	0	0	0
Mixed	red dwarf, long and brown	2	0	2	1	13	0
Social groups	gouro, baoulé, of whites, of blacks	2	3	0	0	4	2
Size	large, small	2	0	6	0	2	1
Continent	African, American	1	0	0	1	3	20
Total (%)		100	100	100	100	100	100
Total number of locutions cited		2218	1123	428	280	301	86
Number of distinct locutions		513	223	164	28	67	31

Pollinator's decline and the REPROCROP project

Both traditional and technical knowledge of farmers regarding the breeding and reproductive systems of their crops are insufficiently assessed at the global level. As far as we know, no other study is directly devoted to perception and beliefs of contemporary farmers regarding plant reproduction.

Quite recently, this subject started to be partially assessed in link with the issue of pollinator declines. At the global scale, this declines began to receive widespread attention in 2006. It has raised concerns regarding potential risks to global food security and economic development. The total economic risk due to pollinator loss and its consequences was estimated to more than USD300 billion per year (Bauer and Wing, 2010). Some regions of the world, such as Africa, could suffer much heavier burdens than others.

Most of studies related to pollinator’s decline are dealing with ecological, biological or phytochemical aspects. Few of these studies are devoted to farmer’s perceptions. In a recent paper defining priorities for research and development in the management of pollination services for agriculture in Africa, the interest of understanding farmer’s perception of plant reproduction is not even mentioned (Gemmill-Herren et al., 2014). In this area, the few studies devoted to farmer’s perceptions are directly focused on pollinators and insecticides. These studies do not assess farmer’s views on the reproduction of their crops.

In Uganda, up to 70% of the interviewed farmers did not understand what pollination meant (Munyuli, 2011). About 90% of them were not aware of the role played by bees in coffee yield increase. Similarly, in Western Kenya, Kasina et al. (2009) showed that most farmers were not aware of the importance of pollination for crop production. In Nepal, all respondents agreed on decreasing of insect pollinators’ population at present as compared to ten years ago (Pudasaini et al., 2016); Majority of respondents (56.67%) perceived that pesticides were the major cause of this decline. The way these Nepalese farmers perceive plant reproduction was not assessed. The mechanism of plant reproduction was probably taught to some of the farmers during the interviews by the surveyors.

A recent study was conducted among lowbush blueberry growers in Maine, USA (Hanes et al., 2015). The questionnaire started by questions such as « How important do you think native bees are for pollinating blueberries? ». When asked how nature benefits their farm, almost half of farmers tagged the “pollination box” of the questionnaires Their real knowledge about plant reproduction was not assessed. Same kind of study was also previously conducted in New Zealand (Sandhu et al, 2007). Although conventional farmers depend heavily on external chemical inputs, they rated key environmental services as very important for their farming. The top five were pollination, soil fertility, food production, soil erosion control and hydrological flow.

Bauer, D. M., & Wing, I. S. (2010). Economic consequences of pollinator declines: a synthesis. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 39(3), 368-383.
Gemmill-Herren, B., Aidoo, K., Kwapong, P., Martins, D., Kinuthia, W., Gikungu, M., & Eardley, C. (2014). Priorities for research and development in the management of pollination services for agriculture in Africa. J Pollination Ecol, 12, 40-51.
Munyuli, T. (2011). Farmers’ perceptions of pollinators’ importance in coffee production in Uganda. Agricultural Sciences, 2(03), 318.
Kasina, J. M., Mburu, J., Kraemer, M., & Holm-Mueller, K. (2009). Economic benefit of crop pollination by bees: a case of Kakamega small-holder farming in western Kenya. Journal of economic entomology, 102(2), 467-473.
Pudasaini, R., Thapa, R. B., & Tiwari, S. (2016). Farmers Perception on Effect of Pesticide on Insect Pollinators at Padampur and Jutpani Vdcs, Chitwan, Nepal. International Journal of Applied Sciences and Biotechnology, 4(1), 64-66.
Hanes, S. P., Collum, K. K., Hoshide, A. K., & Asare, E. (2015). Grower perceptions of native pollinators and pollination strategies in the lowbush blueberry industry. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 30(02), 124-131.
Sandhu, H. S., Wratten, S. D., & Cullen, R. (2007). From poachers to gamekeepers: perceptions of farmers towards ecosystem services on arable farmland. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 5(1), 39-50.

A propos des notions de femelle/féminin et mâle/masculin appliquées ou non aux plantes

Dans le dictionnaire français Larousse, le terme "femelle" désigne un individu ou d'un organe animal ou végétal qui appartient au sexe porteur des cellules reproductrices les plus volumineuses. Il qualifie aussi ce sexe. Ce terme est réservé essentiellement aux animaux et aux plantes.

Le mâle est défini comme ce qui appartient ou ce qui est propre au sexe fécondant, porteur de cellules reproductrices plus nombreuses, plus petites et plus mobiles que celles du sexe femelle. Chez les végétaux, il qualifie ou désigne l'organe qui fournit le pollen (plantes à graines) ou les anthérozoïdes (cryptogames), la fleur qui ne porte que des étamines mais pas de pistil, ou encore la plante entière dont les fleurs n'ont que des étamines.

Le dictionnaire français Larousse définit le mot féminin comme ce qui est propre à la femme. Ce terme ne s'applique donc ni aux animaux ni aux plantes. En revanche, le mot "masculin" regroupe tout ce qui appartient ou qui a rapport au mâle ou à l'homme. Le terme "mâle" n'étant pas réservé à l'espèce humaine, le mot "masculin" concerne aussi bien les humains, les animaux que les plantes. Les stéréotypes sociaux occidentaux concernant la féminité et la masculinité ont influé la définition même de ces termes.

In the French Larousse dictionary, the word "femelle" (female) means a person or an animal or a plant organ that belongs to the bearer of the larger sex reproductive cells. It also describes that gender. This term is reserved primarily to animals and plants.
The "male" is defined as that which belongs to or what is proper to the fertilizing gender, carrying many more reproductive cells, smaller and more mobile than those of the female gender. In plants, it qualifies or refers to the organ that supplies the pollen (seed plants) or the antherozoids (cryptogams), the flower that get only stamens but no pistil, or the whole plant whose flowers have only stamens.

French dictionary Larousse defines the word "féminin" (feminine) as that is unique to women. Thus, it does apply neither animals nor plants. However, the word "male" is defined as all that belongs or that relates to male man. The term "mâle" is not reserved to the human species. It concerns both humans, animals and plants. Western social stereotypes about gender are impacting the definition of these terms, as masculinity is related to animal and femininity is not.

Read more at http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/femelle/33206#9tcr63Wwxy3OtXtp.99

A propos des notions et définitions de "mère" et "père"

Mère - mother

Le dictionnaire Français Larousse définit la "mère" de différentes façons. Pour les humains, il s'agit de la femme qui a mis au monde ou qui a adopté un ou plusieurs enfants. Dans ce cas, le concept de maternité dépasse donc la fonction biologique et s'enrichit d'une dimension sociale.  En ce qui concerne les animaux, la mère est définie de façon strictement biologique comme la femelle qui a eu des petits. En arboriculture et agriculture, la mère désigne tout végétal cultivé en vue de la reproduction. Le concept de "mère" s'applique donc aussi aux plantes reproduites de façon asexuée, comme par exemple les clones de bananier.

The French Larousse dictionary defines "mère" (mother) in different ways. For humans, it designates the woman who gave birth to or adopted a child or children. In this case, the concept of maternity therefore exceeds the biological function and is enriched with a social dimension. Regarding animals, the mother is defined strictly organically as the female who had progeny. In Arboriculture and agriculture, the mother refers to any plant grown for breeding. The concept of "mother" thus applies also to asexually propagated plants such as banana clones.

Père - Father

Selon le dictionnaire Français Larousse, le terme père désigne un homme qui a engendré ou qui a adopté un ou plusieurs enfants, ou qui agit comme un père pour d'autres personnes qui lui sont proches. dans ce cas, le concept de paternité ne se restreint pas à la fonction biologique. Il intègre une forte dimension sociale, qui semble plus large encore que celle du concept de maternité. Pour les animaux, il désigne le parent mâle qui a eu une descendance,  selon une conception purement biologique. Le dictionnaire ne fait pas mention de l'utilisation du terme "père" dans le règne végétal. Il y a donc déjà dans la langue française une symbologie implicite qui relie les plantes au sexe féminin. Le terme "père" est cependant utilisé par les scientifiques et les améliorateurs qui réalisent des croisements entre plantes.

According to the French Larousse dictionary, "père" (father) refers to a man who has begotten or adopted one or more children, or who acts as a father to other people close to him. In this case, the concept of paternity largely exceeds the biological function. It incorporates a strong social dimension, which seems even wider than for the concept of motherhood. For animals, it is defined strictly organically as the male parent who had progeny. The dictionary does not consider the term "father" to be used in the plant kingdom. In French language, there is so an implicit symbology which already links plants to the female sex. However, the term "père" is used by scientists and breeders who perform crosses between plants.

Read more at http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/p%C3%A8re/59470#Cym1kV8twM5xUpdj.99