From participatory plant breeding to local innovation networks in Cuba

At the beginning of the last century, plant breeding gradually began to be removed from farmers' hands, with the result that what had been done by many people in many diverse places began to be done by fewer and fewer people in relatively few places. During the 'golden years' of the eastern socialist countries, a centralised plant breeding model was a standard component of the high-input agriculture practised in Cuba, and particularly for the country's cash crops. The crop improvement programmes performed under low-input conditions were more efficient in terms of energy use. Notably, the yield obtained under the low-input conditions was also comparable to yields achieved under the conventional, high-input technological package. Over the course of eight years, five learning cycles were conducted at district level in different regions of Cuba, applying in each cycle a two-track interactive and experiential learning approach.