Partenariat en sélection participative sur bananiers plantains : l'expérience du Centre africain de recherches sur bananiers et plantains au Cameroun

Partnership management in the participatory selection of bananas and plantains: CARBAP experience in Cameroon. The first hybrids resulting from the genetic improvement of bananas and plantains are recent, i.e. obtained less than 10 years ago in most cases. Four of these hybrids--two of which are plantains (CRBP 39, FHIA 21), one a cooking banana (BITA 3) and one a desert banana (FHIA 17) with good productivity and showing a good level of resistance to black leaf streak disease--were involved in two recent participatory selection experiments at CARBAP. The first was for CRBP 39 and the second was carried out as part of the TARGET project and concerned CRBP 39, FHIA 21, BITA 3 and FHIA 17. The present paper is based on interactions between partners, principally during the participatory hybrid evaluation phases. These phases required substantial partner involvement since banana and plantain improvement can only be conducted under controlled conditions. Improvement in cooperation approaches were transferred from one experiment to another, with the major concern being the inter-partner dialogue between researchers, extension agents and farmers. Some difficulties linked with communication problems were also pointed out.