11^th World Congress on Plant Biotechnology & Agriculture March 05-07, 2018 Paris, France

Biography:

Abstract:

Statement of the Problem: Farmers who are members of a Lat Bua Luang Community Rice Center (LBLCRC) in land reform area, Ayutthaya province, central Thailand, used conventional farming techniques and did not have enough profit to feed their family members. They then switched to organic rice cultivation to reduce their production costs and initiated organic vegetable production to boost their income using Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS). PGS can improve local organic farming practices through the sharing of knowledge and experiences. PGS certification also has less administration and lower costs than third party certification. However, PGS is not prevalent in Thailand because most producers and consumers lack understanding of its processes and advantages. This study thus aims to examine the outcome of organic group processing and the interaction between the LBLCRC-member farmers and other stakeholders from participating in PGS.

Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Collaborative action research using a concept of empowerment theory was conducted to promote the organic group processing and the ability to control selling prices. The face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions were also taken place during data collection procedures.

Findings: The participation in PGS can improve organic group process skills of the LBLCRC-member farmers and strengthen them to have better access to domestic markets rather than limiting their organic products into a local niche market.

Conclusion & Significance: PGS may be a promising alternative for smallholder farmers to develop organic group processing and to increase market accessibility. Further studies in the way to scale up other land reform areas under organic farming using PGS should be emphasized

Biography:

Abstract:

Molecular marker technologies can assist conventional breeding efforts and are valuable tools for analysis of genetics relatednessand the identifications and selection of desirable genotypes for crossing as well as for germplasm conservation in gene banks. The objectives of the present investigation were to evaluate genetic divergence, molecular characterization of 30 rice genotypes using twenty SSR markers and to evaluate the efficiency of SSR markers. Among the used 20 primers, only 15 primers amplified well and revealed polymorphic bands, whereas, remaining 5 primers showed no reaction in PCR amplification. The allele length for these 15 primers varied from 100 to 500 bp. Total of 20 alleles were detected in 30 rice genotypes and number of alleles per locus ranged from 1 to 3 with an average of 1.93 per locus. The highest number of alleles (3.0) was detected in the locus RM1, RM2-, RM26 and the lowest number of alleles (1.0) was detected from RM22, RM 138, RM182 and RM 189. The PIC (Polymorphism Information Content) values for different SSR loci across the 30 rice genotypes ranged from 0.066 (RM138 and RM 182) to 0.9 (RM31) with an average of 0.605. The PIC values indicate that RM31 might be the best marker for diversity analysis. Resolving power of the microsatellite markers used ranging from 1.6332 (RM20) to 4.3664 (RM26) with an average of 2.4686. Jaccard’s similarity coefficient revealed that Punjab Basmati 3 and Vallabh Basmati 24 were ascertained to be the genetically divergent from the other genotypes. The similarity coefficient values indicated, a wide genetic base of 30 genotypes used in the experiment. The resolving power and PIC value of primers shows that they are highly polymorphic and informative. The result derived from the analysis of genetic diversity at DNA level could be used for designing effective breeding programs aiming to broaden the genetic basis of commercially grown varieties.