Ciência compartilhada: estratégias de pesquisa em melhoramento genético participativo

Abstract

One of the great challenges of family farmers with an agroecological basis is related to the lack of availability and access to lettuce genetic material adapted to their environmental and technological conditions, implying the requirement of the development of new cultivars with greater adaptation. Believing that there is a new path to genetic improvement that can be done in a collective way and that meets the demands and needs of the farmers, this thesis aims to share the experience of participatory genetic breeding of lettuce with urban farmers in the municipality of Lavras, MG, Brazil. As well as providing information that helps in understanding the difficulties and possibilities of participatory genetic breeding of vegetables, favoring and contributing in the construction and execution of proposals within this perspective. The methodology adopted was based on an integrated and participatory approach, allowing the exchange of academic and traditional knowledge. Spaces were created that allowed researchers and farmers to observe the viability of the work proposal, through the Observation Unit, and research-learning spaces, where farmers could experience the practice of genetic improvement of lettuce, which was denominated Unit Experimental. The great variability observed in plant morphology allowed the identification and selection of promising progenies to advance the work in order to obtain lineages with desirable commercial characteristics, better adapted to the organic system and the cultivation realities of these farmers. As a result of the genetic improvement process, four families of progenies that had potential for commercialization were selected. This experience also provided the opportunity for researchers and farmers to experience in practice the construction of research methodologies with the participatory approach that demonstrate the protagonist capacity of farmers.