How much evidence is needed before client-oriented breeding (COB) is institutionalised? Evidence from rice and maize in India

• Client-oriented breeding (COB) has not been institutionalised and this may be because of lack of time to produce evidence of its value.
• A maize variety and two rice varieties from COB have been released in India and for which there has been sufficient time to measure their impact.
• Seed of the maize variety has been commercially produced on a large scale and accounted for most maize certified seed production in Gujarat from 2007 to 2013. The variety has been widely adopted in Gujarat.
• The two rice varieties have been more popular than any other previously released upland variety in India. Following their initial success with farmers, additional funding was awarded for their wide dissemination.
• These demonstrations of the usefulness of COB may help to overcome the many barriers to its institutionalisation.

A strong case has been made in many publications for the adoption of highly client-oriented breeding (COB) since a greater role for farmers and clients can help produce and popularise varieties that better meet demands. Participatory varietal selection (PVS) – the testing of a diverse range of new varieties on farm by farmers – is an essential component of COB and has been broadly accepted. However, on the basis of published evidence, other aspects of COB have not been mainstreamed in national and international breeding programmes. This may be because there has been insufficient time for their benefits to become apparent. We review the outcomes from COB in maize (Zea mays L.) and rice (Oryza sativa L.) in India that resulted in the official release of a maize variety and two rice varieties. We review the substantial evidence on how all three were better accepted and much more widely adopted in several northern states of India than any of the conventionally bred alternatives that were currently available. This provides the most convincing evidence, so far, that client-oriented methods can be more effective.Prior to this, there was little documentation of the impact of COB programmes with few reports of them producing released varieties, so it may be unsurprising that there has been little institutionalisation of COB. The evidence presented here on its effectiveness ought to provide a stimulus for more breeders to adopt these approaches. However, the question of exactly how much evidence is needed remains rhetorical as evidence-based change is constrained by breeders who, for many reasons, are motivated to preserve the status quo. A greater weight of evidence may have to be accumulated before this inertia is overcome.