Participatory and Conventional Plant Breeding for Selection of Soybean Cultivars for Smallholder Agriculture in Mozambique

The aim of this study was to select soybean cultivars adapted to Mozambican farming systems using participatory and conventional breeding and to assess the extent of agreement between these approaches. Experiments were conducted in the Zambézia and Tete provinces during the 2021/22 growing season in a randomized complete block design with 41 genotypes and three replications. In the participatory plant breeding approach, 165 farmers participated in the selection process. The top 35 cultivars for each method were identified and then compared using a coincidence index, which resulted in –29.41, confirming the divergence. The cultivar TGX 2002-3DM was ranked highest in the conventional method, whereas TGX 2014-16FM was selected by farmers. These findings indicate the need to incorporate farmers’ preferred traits in selecting varieties in the breeding process to increase the likelihood of adoption of the varieties. These results support the hypotheses proposed in this study.