Executive Summary of the Proposal
The overall objective of this project is to strengthen the role of farmers from developing countries regarding in situ conservation, participative breeding and producing locally good planting material. We do not advocate a situation where these farmers will become only diversity users, and where all conservation and breeding will be implemented by national institutions or large private companies, as illustrated by the example of maize in most of Western countries.
Conducting a similar survey with the same questionnaire five years after launching this process, in order to assess progress regarding the farmers’ knowledge.
Throughout the corpus agronomists, only a text seems to describe a phenomenon of sexual reproduction in plants (Bretin-Chabrol, 2009). This is a notice of Pline on the date palms. But as Theophrast, Pliny describes the phenomenon of pollination of palm trees without understanding it: "Trees, and, moreover, all beings created by the earth, including herbs, are from both sexes (utrumque sexum) ... / ... it is stated (confirming) that without male palms, females do not reproduce spontaneously …/…; than female palms surrounding a single male, tilt forward to him caressing with their hair, as he, his bristling with erect leaves, fertilizes them (maritare) with its breath, its gaze, even its dust, while if the male palm is cut, the females in their widowhood (uiduuio), become sterile. There is so much of a representation of sexual relationship (ueneris intellectus) that men have even imagined a coitus (coitus etiam excogitatus) in which females are sprinkled flower end of the male, his down, and sometimes its only dust." Consequently, the complementarity of the two sexes in plant breeding is not perceived by antique agronomists as a fact of nature, but as an agricultural technique invented by analogy with human reproduction, and presented only as an amusing curiosity. What farmers thought at this time is another question...
Both traditional and technical knowledge of farmers and other stakeholders regarding crop breeding and reproductive system are insufficiently assessed at the global level. Our hypothesis is that the way farmers are conceiving the reproductive biology of their crops is impacting their management of genetic resources. The specific objective of this project is to assess the farmer's traditional and botanical knowledge regarding the reproductive biology of some of their crops (Coconut, Banana, Cassava and Cocoa). The project will consist in interviewing 150 to 200 farmers (half female and male) in three agro-climatic zones of Côte d'Ivoire: Grand Bassam, Grand Lahou (Coconut zones) and Dimbokro (cacao zone) by using individual semi-directed interviews. These interviews will be conducted by using an illustrated questionnaire showing many pictures and/or drawing of the crop reproductive organs, and also by using real inflorescences, seednuts and other parts of the plants.
Expected output: the appraisal of farmer's traditional and botanical knowledge regarding the reproductive biology of their crops will help: 1) to record and better protect disappearing traditional knowledge; 2) to assess the scientific/botanical knowledge of farmers according to gender and other socio-economic factors; 3) to better manage communication with and training of farmer's in the framework of future actions in the fields of in situ conservation and participative breeding; 4) to assess how this knowledge on crop reproductive biology is impacting their day life activities.
Results of the study will be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Strategic nature of the project
This study was prepared by preliminary interviews conducted in 2012 in French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka on coconut only, and in 2013 in Côte d’Ivoire on Coconut, Banana, cassava and cocoa (CIFOR, 2013). It was initially planned to continue this study in India but for several practical reasons, including a more efficient network of Agropolis partners, it was shifted to Côte d'Ivoire.
In French Polynesia, farmers are applying the notions of "male and female" to coconut palms and seednuts. From the botanical/scientific point of view, coconut inflorescences have both male and female flowers. Although the farmer's representation does not fit the scientific knowledge, there are good reasons to think that their classification is useful from a pragmatic point of view, and serve farmers to select and breed more efficiently their crop (Bourdeix et al., 2013).
In the Madang region of Papua new Guinea, the interviewed farmer's does not apply the notion of "female and male" and "mother and father" to plants. In the Grand Bassam City of Côte d'Ivoire, some of the interviewed farmers are thinking that trees are reproducing by contacts at the root level, while some other farmers are aware of the role of pollen and its transportation by bees.
The hypothesis are: 1) farmer's knowledge and beliefs regarding crop reproduction impacts the way they select, breed and conserve crop genetic resources; 2) traditional knowledge regarding crop reproduction is insufficiently assessed but this knowledge is presently disappearing; 3) some useful traditional knowledge may be in contradiction with the botanical and scientific knowledge, so there is a need to study this knowledge and to define a communication strategy from breeders and scientists to farmers.
Imposing to farmers the scientific/botanical knowledge may have a destructive effect on some useful traditional knowledge. Traditional knowledge is not a frozen and static corpus of knowledge and modern and traditional agricultural knowledge are not to be seen as mutually exclusive. Both maintenance of some aspects of the traditional knowledge and incorporation of some aspect of the modern knowledge seem to be core elements of agricultural knowledge which is constantly evolving in response to changing environmental and socioeconomic conditions.
Scientific content
The project will consist in interviewing 150 to 200 farmers (half female and male) in three agro-climatic zones of Côte d'Ivoire: Grand Bassam, Grand Lahou (Coconut zones) and Dimbokro (cacao zone) by using individual semi-directed interviews. These interviews will be conducted by using an illustrated questionnaire showing pictures and/or drawing of the crop reproductive organs, and also by using real inflorescences, seednuts and other parts of the studied crops.
Strategic importance:
Created in 1992, the International Coconut Genetic Resources (COGENT) aims to strengthen international collaboration in conservation and use of coconut genetic resources; to promote improving coconut production on a sustainable basis, and to boost livelihoods and incomes of coconut stakeholders in developing countries. COGENT now comprises 39 coconut-producing country-members. In 2012, COGENT has emitted 10 international recommendations of which the letter n°2012-3: "Assessment and improvement of farmers’ technical and traditional knowledge regarding coconut biology in order to increase farmers’ autonomy for production of good planting material." This recommendation (COGENT, 2012) states that:
• Both traditional and technical knowledge of farmers and other stakeholders regarding coconut breeding and its reproductive system are insufficiently assessed at the global level. But this technical knowledge certainly needs to be improved. For instance, in French Polynesia, at least 80% of farmers do not know that each coconut palm has both female and male flowers;
and recommends:
• National Agricultural Services and breeders to allow farmers a primary role in making their own varietal choices, and consider advising consider advising against farmers growing only a single variety
• Encouraging local stakeholders (men and women farmers, private enterprise, NGOs and CBOs) to become more involved in supplying quality germplasm, and to teach farmers and other stakeholders how to autonomously produce quality seedlings (…/…)
• Assessing farmers’ knowledge regarding the reproductive biology of the coconut palm and the use of genetic markers such as sprout colour for breeding purposes. This study should be conducted by 1) drafting a standard gender-sensitive questionnaire 2) training local researchers on implementing the survey, and 3) interviewing at least 100 farmers in at least 20 countries of the 39 COGENT member countries.
• Developing a communication strategy to increase farmers’ knowledge regarding coconut reproductive biology and breeding methods, including training tools, video guidelines, media communication, and an approach for marketing of genetic resources.
Originality and innovativeness
The literature about farmer's perception of the reproductive mode of plants is dramatically scarce; there are some interesting studies of farmer's practices linked to plant reproduction (such as for instance for the coconut palm: Husain & Sundaramari, 2011). No study is directly devoted to perception and beliefs of contemporary farmers regarding plant reproduction. Some useful information is diluted in large ethnologic studies, such as those of Fox (1971), Haudricourt (1962, 1964) and Descola (2005). The work conducted by Fox in Roti, Indonesia: "Sister's Child as Plant…" and his plea for metaphorical extension in anthropological analysis conducted some authors to study further the metaphoric links between procreation, flowers and animals, notably in the Slavic world (Kabakova, 1993).
Quite an important literature was developed on the western perception of plant reproduction, and especially the impact of Linnaean system on the anthropomorphic sexualization of plant reproduction. The discovery of sexuality in plants had been established by John Ray, Nehemiah Grew, and Rudolph Jacob Camerarius at the end of the seventeenth century based on analogies drawn from the better-understood physiology of animal reproduction (Koerner, 2009); so making connections between plant and human reproduction is not so far-fetched in Linnaeus‟s scientific context (Schroeder, B. 2011). However, to the mechanics of plant sex, Linnaeus appends a host of very human details. In his Philosophia Botanica, Linnaeus suggests that if pistils are like women and stamens like men, then the calyx is “the marriage bed, the corolla the curtains, the antherae the testicles, the dust [pollen] the sperm, the stigma the labia…the style the vagina, the german the ovary, the pericarpium the ovary impregnated, the seeds the ovula or eggs..”.
The perception of plant reproduction was also studied in Greek and Roman ancient texts (Bretin-Chabrol, 2007). Theophrast, Pliny and other Roman and Greek "agronomists" well distinguished male and female varieties within a plant group. They generally do not use the terms "male" and "female" to describe two plants realizing their reproduction. They are projecting on plants their own cultural representation of male and female. Several factors come into play in the choice of names: the resemblance between some aspect of the plant and some of the female and male anatomy; the analogy between a characteristic of the plant and an attitude culturally considered feminine or masculine. These criteria mainly determine the categorization of plants into "male" and "female."
Potential structuring effect and complementarities
Reinforce the collaborations between UMR AGAP, UMR Innovation and Bioversity International in a new scientific field where large projects are to be developed in collaboration with the COGENT, CACAONET and MUSANET networks.
It appeared rapidly useful and pertinent not to limit this study to the coconut palm only, as initially planned, but to conduct it simultaneously on other crops. This will allow for a broader and more interesting approach and will generate an economy of scale.
The COGENT recommendation emitted in 2012 recommends and plans to conduct similar studies in at least 20 coconut producing countries. So this study will serve as a basis to build larger projects and will help to improve the communication strategy of R@D institutions from COGENT, CACAONET and MUSANET networks.
Project feasibility and prospects
The feasibility of the project seems good. The main challenge will be to identify appropriate panels of farmers really representative from their groups; it will be very important not to choose the same set of farmers which was already selected and interviewed in the framework of other past R&D projects. Some of the questions to be asked during the pre-survey and also to be included in the questionnaire will be: "do you have already been interviewed and trained in the framework of other R&D projects?"
Another challenge will be to ensure that no exchange about the survey will happen between farmers already interviewed and farmers to be interviewed. In Sri Lanka, during preliminary test interviews, we had the case of a woman giving the same answers than her husband, because she listen the previous interview from her kitchen.
The semi-directed questionnaire will be conceived to fit with farmer's education level. It will include many drawings and or pictures of inflorescences, flowers, seeds, etc. The interviews will also be conducted by using live plant material such as coconut inflorescences and seednuts, Cocoa pods and seeds, banana suckers, and cassava rods.
Added value and leverage effect
Using the Agropolis foundation as funding source will contribute to position the French research teams and our partners from Côte d'Ivoire as the leaders and the main players of this kind of studies, which are to be developed in larger projects involving numerous crops and other countries, in collaboration with COGENT, CACAONET and MUSANET international networks.
This project will serve as a basis and create the methodology for larger studies and other projects to be conducted in other countries on different crops. It will also help COGENT, CACAONET and MUSANET networks to refine its member-countries' communication strategy with farmers.
Other useful information
Environmental, ethical and gender issues:
- Two women strongly involved in gender research are participating to the project
- Interview to be conducted by a team involving women
- The same number of female and male farmers is planned to be interviewed.
- The project will allow assessing if the knowledge regarding crop reproduction is equally shared by women and men.
- The results will help COGENT, CACAONET and MUSANET member-countries and other institutions involved in in situ conservation and participative breeding to refine their communication strategy with farmers taking in account gender approach.