This is by no means a comprehensive reading list; it is meant more as the start of a journey for interested readers.
Books
R.W. Allard 1966. Principles of plant breeding. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, USA. 485 + xi pp
- Chambers, A. Pacey & L.A. Thrupp (Edts). 1989. Farmer First. Farmer innovation and agricultural research. Intermediate Technology Publications. 219 +xx pp.
- Deppe 1993. Breed your own vegetable varieties. Popbeans, purple peas and other innovations from the backyard garden. Little, Brown & Co. Boston, USA. 303+ xv pp
R.W. Gibson 2020*. My life with plants: A journey to new ways of breeding garden varieties. The Conrad Press, Canterbury, UK. 201pp.
- Kingsbury 2009. Hybrid: the history and science of plant breeding. The University of Chicago Press, USA 493 + xv pp
- Low 2008. One man and his dig. Adventures of an allotment novice. Pocket Books. London, UK. 277 pp
D.J. Murphy 2007. Plant breeding and biotechnology. Societal context and the future of agriculture. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK. 423 + xxviii pp
E.F. Schumacher 1977. Small is beautiful. A study of economics as if people mattered. Blond & Briggs Ltd. London, UK. 288 pp
- Tychonievich 2013. Plant breeding for the home gardener: how to create unique vegetables and flowers. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, USA. 215pp
R Vernooy 2003. Seeds that give: participatory plant breeding. The International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. 93 + x pp. https://idl-bnc-idrc.dspacedirect.org/bitstream/handle/10625/25864/IDL-25864.pdf?sequence=8&isAllowed=y
Most of the books can be found easily by searching on line or through any good bookseller, even the prescient one by Ernst Schumacher; sometimes the older ones are still the best.
The book by Carol Deppe is the one I found the most immediately useful!
Scientific papers
I have linked the references used in the text on the different web-pages to their original sites wherever possible so they can also easily be found by just double-clicking them.
The following papers have been selected as particularly valuable as sources of further references. You may have to buy the penultimate one unless you are in academia but it contains 254 references, so this may be £25 well spent!
- In developed countries:
Colley MR, Dawson JC, McCluskey C, Myers JR, Tracy WF, Lammerts van Bueren ET (2021). Exploring the emergence of participatory plant breeding in countries of the Global North – a review. The Journal of Agricultural Science 159(5-6), 320-338. doi:10.1017/S0021859621000782. https:// doi.org/10.1017/S0021859621000782
- In developing countries:
Ceccarelli, S. 2012. Plant breeding with farmers – a technical manual. ICARDA, PO Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria. pp xi + 126.
Ceccarelli, S., & Grando, S. (2020). Participatory plant breeding: Who did it, who does it and where? Experimental Agriculture, 56(1), 1-11. doi:10.1017/S0014479719000127.
Walker, TS 2006. Participatory varietal selection, participatory plant breeding, and varietal change. Background paper for the World Development Report 2008. 31pp.
Websites
The Organic Seed Alliance: https://seedalliance.org/research/
Farmfolk Cityfolk: https://farmfolkcityfolk.ca/
Seedlinked: https://seedlinked.com/sign-up-for-2022-collaborative-trials-on-seedlinked/
Experimental Farm Network: https://www.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/learn
Kultursaat: https://www.kultursaat.org/pdf/FSO_case-study.pdf
Open Pollinated Seeds: http://open-pollinated-seeds.org.uk/
My Film
My film, Tomulabula, Uganda, about how PPB enabled the sweet potato variety Tomulabula to be developed is a bit amateurish and lengthy but it is informative if you struggle through.