LAST week the UWA-based Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) wrapped up its two week Master Class in Collaborative Breeding.
The Master Class utilised CLIMA's application of innovative science to research the problems and priorities identified by WA grain and pasture legume industries and helped to join Australian breeders with colleagues from conflict affected and developing countries.
The Master Class was designed to more effectively involve farmers in the development of new crop varieties for marginal lands that are found in Australia and throughout parts of the developing world.
Plant breeders from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, East Timor, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal and Tanzania took part in the Master Class and learnt how to include their local growers in research to help breed crops for adverse environmental conditions and poor soil types often found throughout their homelands.
Presenters from Australia, Bangladesh, South Africa and Syria led the discussions over the duration of the two weeks.
CLIMA director William Erskine said the focus for much of the world's crop breeding research was set firmly on lands that were fertile or where farmers could afford inputs like fertilisers and irrigation.
"Collaborative breeding is a relatively new approach to crop breeding to ensure the research is relevant to poor conditions and to farmer needs," he said.
"The trick is to involve the farmers in deciding on the traits needed and then testing them on-farm under their own conditions."
Mr Erskine organised the Master Class with support from the Crawford Fund which promotes and supports agricultural research designed to benefit the developing world.
He said crops developed from collaborative breeding were known to be effective because participating farmers enthusiastically tested, adopted and shared them with neighbouring farmers which provided the advantage of accelerating the uptake of the new genetic material in marginal areas.
"We provided the trainees with skills on engaging farmers and using new statistical techniques for the improved analysis of on-farm varietal trials," he said.
The majority of the training took place at the International Centre for Plant Breeding Education and Research at UWA and on field trips like the one taken to the InterGrain barley breeding paddock in Wongan Hills.
Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman officially opened the Master Class on November 22 and said the project provided an invaluable experience to both local plant breeders and those from abroad.
The visiting plant breeders returned home to continue work on a huge span of crops which included wheat, barley, canola, maize, rubber, pulses, cassava, peanuts, almonds and rice.
This large variety gave Australian plant breeders who took part in the program an insight into the many different crops which weren't widely developed and commercially produced in Australia.
Crawford Fund director of training Eric Craswell said he was particularly pleased the Master Class was held in Australia so that a group of experienced and practicing Australian plant breeders could benefit and join colleagues from developing countries.
Other sponsors of the Master Class included the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Grains Research and Development Corporation, the International Centre for Plant Breeding Education and Research and the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas.
