Participatory tomato breeding for organic conditions in Italy

Participatory plant breeding (PPB) has been proposed as a breeding methodology to increase/optimize the development and adoption of several new varieties each one different and each adapted to individual microclimates. Tomato is an important horticultural crop in Europe, and in particular in Italy, and there is an increasing demand for organic tomatoes. Therefore, a PPB program was considered as the ideal approach to rapidly develop and deliver in each organic microclimate, a number of different tomato lines directly selected under organic conditions. Visual selection was applied by farmers and researchers in four F₂ populations and in the F₃ families obtained from selected F₂ plants grown in unreplicated row and column designs in five locations. The agronomic performance of the F₂-derived F₄ families at the end of two cycles of selection was evaluated by comparing the selected materials with commercial hybrids. Production traits and qualitative plant and fruit traits (plant vigor and hardiness, disease resistance, fruit quality) were analysed. A total of 15 F₄ families was identified, of which three out-yielded significantly the respective commercial F₁ hybrid, and twelve did not differ significantly from it. The putative superior varieties that are being developed from the F₄ families represent important genetic material for organic agriculture, since they would assure good productive capacity and a seed availability at low cost.