Learning from Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB): Maize Selection and Harvest

How can seeds better adapted to local territories be developed while strengthening the autonomy of farming families and conserving agrobiodiversity? This video showcases the main lessons learned during the International Workshop held in Misiones, Argentina, which brought together more than 300 participants from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia to exchange experiences on maize selection and harvesting within the framework of Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB). Through a journey across the first Agrobiodiversity Demonstration Corridor established in Argentina, the video presents the participatory maize selection methodology step by step, integrating scientific knowledge with the local expertise of women and men farmers, technical teams, and research institutions. More than documenting an experience, this video highlights the collective knowledge-building promoted by the Raíces Project, showing how the methodology developed by Embrapa, in collaboration with the project's partner institutions, has been strengthened, adapted and replicated across different territories to conserve agrobiodiversity, reinforce local seed systems, and enhance the resilience of family farming. The trinational project Participatory Improvement of Genetic Resources and Seed Systems for Agroecological Production – Raíces Agroecológicas - Agroecological Roots, under the Global Programme for Small-Scale Agroecological Producers and Sustainable Transformation of Food Systems (GP-SAEP), is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) with supplementary resources from the European Union. The initiative is executed by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), under the technical leadership of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), in partnership with research institutions and civil society organizations implementing the project in the following countries: Argentina: National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) and local organizations, through an agreement with the ArgenINTA Foundation; Bolivia: National Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Innovation (INIAF), in collaboration with the Foundation for the Promotion and Research of Andean Products (PROINPA) and the Center for Research and Promotion of Peasant Farmers (CIPCA); Brazil: In Sergipe, the Association of Peasant Women and Men of the State of Sergipe (ACCESE)/Popular Peasant Movement (MCP). In Bahia, a consortium of NGOs composed of the Regional Association for Appropriate Coexistence with the Semi-Arid (ARCAS), the Advisory Service to Rural Popular Organizations (SASOP), and the Mixed Cooperative for Production and Commercialization of Peasant Farmers of Bahia (CPC-BA)/ Small Farmers Movements (MPA).