• The first sorghum hybrids based on local germplasm in West Africa yield well on farms. • Intrahousehold status on extended family farms affects adoption of improved seed. • Adoption raises yield, reduces the harvest share consumed and also purchased. • Adoption increases the harvest share sold and dietary diversity.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) productivity is severely impeded by low phosphorus (P) and aluminum (Al) toxic soils in sub-Saharan Africa and especially West Africa (WA). Improving productivity of this staple crop under these harsh conditions is crucial to improve food security and farmer’s incomes in WA. This is the first study to examine the genetics underlying sorghum adaptation to phosphorus limitation in a wide range of WA growing conditions. A set of 187 diverse sorghum genotypes were grown in 29 –P and + P field experiments from 2006-2012 in three WA countries. Sorghum grain yield performance under –P and + P conditions was highly correlated (r = 0.85***). Significant genotype-by-phosphorus interaction was detected but with small magnitude compared to the genotype variance component. We observed high genetic diversity within our panel, with rapid linkage disequilibrium decay, confirming recent sequence based studies in sorghum. Using genome wide association mapping based on 220 934 SNPs we identified one genomic region on chromosome 3 that was highly associated to grain yield production. A major Al-tolerance gene in sorghum, SbMATE, was collocated in this region and SbMATE specific SNPs showed very high associations to grain yield production, especially under –P conditions, explaining up to 16% of the genotypic variance. The results suggest that SbMATE has a possible pleiotropic role in providing tolerance to two of the most serious abiotic stresses for sorghum in WA, Al toxicity and P deficiency. The identified SNPs can help accelerate breeding for increased sorghum productivity under unfavorable soil conditions and contribute to assuring food security in WA.

Malian farmers’ traditional system for managing seed of sorghum, an indigenous crop of vital importance for food security and survival, can be conceptualized as a commons. Although this system maintains a wide range of varieties and helps ensure access to seed, its ability to create and widely disseminate new varieties to meet evolving opportunities and challenges is limited. A network of farmer groups, public breeding programs, and development organizations collaborating in decentralized creation and dissemination of sorghum varieties in Mali is examined regarding (1) how the network developed and what activities it conducts; (2) the resulting varietal diversity, varietal performance and organizational models; and (3) the elements of the traditional seed system that were maintained, strengthened or transformed. A single-case study approach was used that relies on published literature, official catalogues of released varieties and a database of farmer seed-cooperative requests for foundation seed. The functioning of the network and its varietal-, seed-, and organizational- outcomes are documented and the elements of the traditional sorghum seed system that are maintained or strengthened are analyzed. The evolution of the network’s reliance on commoning as a social process and its strengthening of core Seed Commons features are discussed with a view to the network’s contributions to targeted development outcomes and potential replicability. The case demonstrates how creating a framework for collaboration, enabling actors and organizations to take on collective responsibility while maintaining distributed decision-making at local level, opens opportunities for transforming farming- and food-systems towards sustainability and resilience.

Tailoring agricultural technology options to the diverse conditions of smallholder farmers requires innovative approaches for testing these technologies with farmers across varied contexts, while incorporating their feedback into learning and decision-making processes. This study compares four such approaches: the Farmer Field School on Participatory Plant Breeding (FFS-PPB), Farmer Research Network (FRN), Crowdsourcing–Triadic comparisons of technologies (Tricot), and adapted Mother–Baby Trial (MBT) as implemented by four concrete projects. The objectives are to provide detailed descriptions of these approaches and their project-specific implementations, identify and analyze common aspects and differences, and derive insights to guide future farmer-inclusive projects aiming at contextual scaling of agricultural technologies. A literature review, key informant interviews, and a systematic content analysis were conducted for the analysis. Common features include cascade training models, simple farmer-managed experiments, and the use of digital tools for data collection. Major differences lie in the extent of farmer–researcher collaboration and decision-making, as well as how technology option-by-context interactions are addressed. The FRN, FFS-PPB, and adapted MBT approaches involve farmers in decision-making throughout most stages of research, including co-learning cycles that adapt the research design and technology options to farmers’ needs. Although these approaches require more training and expertise, they increase the likelihood of achieving relevant results that farmers can implement in practice. In contrast, more standardized approaches like the Crowdsourcing–Tricot streamline the implementation, data management and analysis of large-scale trials, but have limitations in capturing the underlying reasons for farmers’ preferences. Among the studied approaches, the FRN as implemented by the Women's Fields project in Niger is particularly effective in identifying which options best suit specific farming contexts.

A requirement for the successful development of new sorghum varieties in Mali is effective evaluation of grain qualities, since sorghum is a staple food crop on which farmers rely for food security. The diversity of grain quality and social aspects that determine varietal acceptability for processing and cooking, however, make this a challenging task. As the processors of sorghum grain in households, women’s knowledge of grain quality traits can contribute to this work. Our objective is to understand opportunities to use grain quality traits to identify experimental varieties that may contribute to food security. Culinary evaluations were conducted in nine villages across two sorghum production zones. Three teams of women, one per replicate, processed, cooked and evaluated five test varieties in each village. Sensory evaluations were conducted by 25 taste testers per village. The major varietal differences observed included the decortication losses, women’s appreciation for ease of processing, and consistency of the prepared food. The participatory evaluation of the quality testing results led to the development of the concept of ‘food yield’. Discussion of these results focuses on designing cost-efficient grain and food quality evaluations that rely on women’s expertise as processors and strengthens their role in the variety development process.