Did you ever wonder how generations of farmers without advanced degrees not only produced their own seed, but also developed the food-crops that we eat today? Until a few hundred years ago seed production was an integral part of farming. Are the age-old methods of seed production applicable to state-of-the art seed production today?

In 1963, J.E. Vanderplank, a plant pathologist, introduced a scientific approach to the traditional breeding methods of generations of indigenous farmers. He distinguished between the conventional "vertical" approach of modern plant breeding and the 'horizontal" approach of traditional farmers.

Conventional breeding for vertical resistance (VR) involves selecting and breeding for a single gene trait. However vertical resistance is often short-lived because pathogens and pests adapt and evolve. Single trait breeding produces a limited form of genetic resistance because it works with only one gene. It lacks a complexity of genes that can adapt to the new strains of pathogens or pests that constantly evolve. VR varieties, bred and tested in conventionally managed fields, require increasing use of pesticides and fungicides to stay ahead of constantly evolving pests and diseases.

Horizontal resistance (HR) draws on the broad base of multiple-linked genetic traits found in a traditional farmer's field. Horizontal resistance is based on the genetic biodiversity found in heirloom and indigenous varieties, and produces a resilient, intrinsic form of resistance. Because horizontal resistance involves multiple genes, it has a wider capacity for genetic adaptability to survive ever-new and evolving diseases and insects. This approach was further developed by Dr. Raoul Robinson in work with third-world farmers. Plants selected for seed are the survivors of diseased field conditions over several seasons to produce hardy plant varieties that are naturally resistant to pests and disease, making HR a particularly suitable tool for organic cropping systems. The resistant survivors do not need pesticides or agrochemicals to produce high yields. These plants are the product of generations of careful selection and crossing of the most hardy survivors. Participatory farmer-based crop improvement to select for taste, nutrition and adaptability to local climate conditions is being conducted with traditional farmers world-wide, however little work has been done in the United States.

Imitating Nature to Develop Hardy Plants
Frank Morton, an ecological plant breeder from Oregon, produces superior vegetable varieties by selecting a diversity of the hardiest plants that survive adverse field conditions and incorporating insectary habitats of native plants that attract abundant insect pollinators. This ensures intensive mixing of the complex gene-pool of the diverse plant survivors. Frank then grows-out the survivor plants in fertile conditions that produce robust, plump and disease-resistant seed.

The Restoring Our Seed Program
Restoring Our Seed will teach farmers how to breed disease resistant crops by a coordinated program of seminars, demonstration sites and farmer field days.

Each demonstration site will have a plot of a self-pollinated crop (tomatoes) and one plot of a cross-pollinated species. At our Winter Conference, farmers will discuss which cross-pollinated crop to improve. Farmer field days will demonstrate each step in how to observe, evaluate and select for horizontal resistance (HR) to the native diseases found in each demonstration site. We will demonstrate how to test and increase the resistance of an heirloom vegetable to a local disease by deliberately 'growing a disease' in which to challenge the vegetable we seek to improve. The disease is invited in by growing the same crop for several years and by growing varieties susceptible to the disease. Varieties of plants which overcome disease will be identified, selected and bred together. This approach can be used by farmers to select and breed for many desired trait.

Each plot will have three replications (reps for short). The purpose of the reps is to affirm the validity of observations by minimizing variations caused by changes in soil type, fertility levels, moisture and solar exposure. Each field trial will be in a block design as close to a square as possible. The border rows in each plot will be planted with a cultivar of the same crop, in this case the susceptible variety, to minimize the edge effect. Outside rows of crops can perform better than interior rows because of less competition for sun, nutrients and water and to spread the disease through the plot.

Trial Evaluations: Measuring Resistance
When a trial site suffers disease pressure, insect attack, heat, drought or cold stress, it provides an opportunity to measure which varieties show the highest resistance to that particular environmental pressure. At the summer field days, plants will be measured for the presence of disease by farmers and extension staff. Plants will be scored on a 1-9 scale. A score of '1' always represents the lowest level of a particular trait, and the score '9' represents the strongest. We will score individual plants and varieties, measuring the severity of disease symptoms and the rate at which the disease spreads through each variety. At the end of the season we will have a total score for each plant.

Selections: Survivors of Adversity
We will select seeds from the plants which exhibit the greatest resistance, nature's survivors. In self-pollinated tomatoes the final selections can be made at any time in the season, since there is little risk of crossing with susceptible plants In the cross-pollinated crop, the selection of individual plants from the improving variety will be made relatively early in the season to prevent resistant varieties from crossing with susceptible plants.

When the selections are made, all other individuals from the improving variety, and all from the susceptible variety and the resistant variety will be rogued out. Seed will be saved from the best individuals from the improving variety. This seed will be used in the next selection cycle at another demonstration plot the following year as the new improving variety. In subsequent years we will also include the original unselected improving variety to compare with the selected version, to assess the progress we've made.

After three years we anticipate measurable improvement resulting from three successive generations of selection that strengthened the multiple genes conferring resistance.