Increased yields and productivity are expected to feed the world's growing population. However, the improvement of food crop varieties is reaching a plateau. In addition, there is a gap between yield potential with good farm management and the range of agroclimatic conditions on farms. Climate change is likely to exacerbate all these trends. Currently, 75% of the food consumed in the world comes from just 12 plant species and 5 animal species, and 60% of the world's total calorie intake comes from just three plant species: rice, wheat and maize. Breeding programmes are also to blame for the under-utilisation of genetic resources, particularly local varieties with a high degree of plasticity.

The concept of participatory plant breeding (PPB) has been developed by the CGIAR centres and adopted by many universities and research institutions such as CIRAD and INRAE. PPB involves stakeholders, including farmers, throughout the process, from the analysis of social needs and demands to seed production, via on-farm variety evaluation (participatory varietal selection (PVS)). Community-based biodiversity management (CBM) is also an effective system for conserving genetic resources, including local varieties. PPB and PVS have many benefits in terms of the resilience of high-yielding varieties under different agro-climatic conditions, higher adoption rates, increased genetic diversity and household food security. This participatory research also has social and environmental benefits such as inclusion, farmer empowerment, increased agrobiodiversity and improved gender equality. Selection tools have been developed for this type of decentralised experimentation.