Sorghum landrace diversity and farmers’ selection criteria: twenty years of farmer-led innovation for livelihood security and climate change resilience, Ethiopia

Long-term changes of sorghum landrace diversity in five agricultural landscapes of the Central Highlands of Ethiopia were studied in 1992/93, 2000/01 and 2012/13. The influence of   farmers’ selection criteria, land size, seed sources, community seedbanks, altitudinal gradients and soil factors on the dynamics and maintenance of crop diversity on-farm were investigated. In each of the three research periods, over 300 farmers were interviewed and their fields were surveyed. Over the 20-year period, significant increases were found in the number of seed sources and in the diversity of sorghum landraces and of the associated selection criteria. The implications of landrace diversity to resilient seed, food and livelihood security and to farmers’ adaptive capacity to climate variations and extremes are discussed. Strategies for strengthening diversity-based agriculture and climate change adaptation through farmer-scientist collaboration are outlined.