A yam collaborative selection plateform in Guadeloupe: a model for effective multipartenarial and participative program

Since the early years of 2002, INRA and CIRAD in Guadeloupe have implemented complementary yam breeding programs to develop highly performant and locally well-adapted yam hybrids to fit both producers and consumer's requirements, yielding to nearly 20 pre-selected innovative cultivars. In 2012, a multi-local, multi-partenarial and participative field plot network was implemented to achieve evaluation of cultivar performance at field scale in contrasted geographical and productive environments throughout Guadeloupe. During two to three crop cycles, several agronomic and qualitative indicators selected by producers were followed, registers and combined in a collaborative database. Once formatted, data will be used to develop computer-based decision tools to help growers and technical advisors with selection of best-adapted cultivars to specific growing production or final use.Though this collaborative platform, various actors such as research scientists, breeders, technical advisors and producers have experimented and optimized effective yam breeding network to serve as a model for evaluation of any other tuber crops in Guadeloupe