Cassava propagation by small scale farmers using a low cost in vitro system [poster] [on line]

Lack of quality planting material of farmers varieties, produced locally and at a low cost, are major constraints contributing to the limited expansion of cassava production in small farming settings in Colombia. This works presents ours experience in adapting conventional cassava propagation into a low-input rural tissue culture multiplication scheme, developed and runned by resource-poor small farmers. The project was developed in a farmers' community in the hillsides of Southern Colombia. Alternative, economical and readily, available sources of tissue culture material and equipment were developed through a two-phase participatory process by a women farmers group, an NGO and CIAT scientists (Escobar et al 2001) This system allow us to certify the quality of material each cycle, and support seed