Utilization of Evolutionary and Participatory Plant Breeding Approaches for Rapid Adoption: The Case of Durum Wheat, Central Parts of Ethiopia

Wheat has been almost the first crop domesticated through evolution, natural selection, hybridization, and artificial selection; directly contributed to the adaptation and development of modern varieties. The role of participatory and evolutionary plant breeding in combination can be utilized as a new approach to cope with the complexity of wheat variety adoption and climate change. This method can be also curiously used to improve food security and nutritional value for the rapidly growing human population to reduce the dependence on inorganic agricultural inputs. The experiment was conducted with the objective; to evaluate different mixtures of durum wheat under local climate to improve the variety adoption process and enhance resilience to climate change. Field trials were conducted on 27 heterogeneous durum wheat populations (mixtures) over two locations for one year to test the use of evolutionary plant breeding combined with participatory farmers' selection for local climate adaptation, nutritional value, and grain yield. The result showed that gender preferences associated with important adaptation traits like spike color, head compactness, and plant height are effective for determining high-yielding wheat variety and founded with better adaptation to changing climate. During an evaluation by farmers; mixtures exhibited compact head (MTOPTI_UNS (25), M10_UNS (27), M10_MS (9), and MTIG_FS (12), white-colored head (M10_UNS (27), M10_MS (9), MTOPTI_UNS (9), MTIG_FS (12), M217_UNS (19), and mixtures with tall plants resistant to lodging (MTOPTI-UNS (25), were more preferred and selected by farmers. Broadly, according to the experiment, mixtures (evolutionary populations) have comparative advantages over modern varieties for enhancing resilience to climate change, nutrition, and better adaptation.