ABSTRACT
Farmers have their own individual preferences and needs and this is reflected in the diversity of crops and varieties that they grow. Farmers’ preferences depend upon the specific characteristics of their agro-ecosystem, as well as on socio-cultural, religious or nutritional use values. Traditional local varieties, which have developed over a long process of domestication, selection and interaction with the environment, often show variation for adaptive or qualitative traits. That is why small-scale farmers in many production systems still continue to cultivate traditional varieties and why the introduction of improved varieties did not result in the complete disappearance of locally adapted, traditional crop species and varieties. Participatory crop improvement (PCI) aims to further support the use of those local varieties within their production systems (Jarvis et al., 2011).
