Participatory plant breeding of saffron, initiated in Morocco, under Green Morocco Plan Strategy

Saffron trade is based on non-selected corm production. However, profitable cultivation is limited by the low multiplication rate of selected corms. In recent years, the cultivation of saffron in Taliouine and Taznakht has faced a problem of availability and high cost of saffron corms. The growing interest for saffron has led to the increasing demand for more saffron corms. The corm price in the market has almost tripled. The increase in the corm price encouraged farmers to sell their own corms, causing corm scarcity. As a consequence, the high price limited the plantation of some new saffron plots in the region. In addition, saffron corms produced in the main Moroccan saffron region (Taliouine and Taznakht) became the reservoir for European producers, because the corms were much cheaper than from other countries. The Moroccan government decided to protect Moroccan corms by setting up new rules regarding seed-corms to be certified. The green Morocco Plan Strategy in the saffron sector for the period 2012-2020, projected to increase saffron area and to encourage the use of certified saffron corms. In this context, a selection program was initiated by the National Institute of Agronomic Research in collaboration with the Saffron Farmers Federation (FIMASAFRAN). For this purpose, large field studies were conducted over 2 years (2014-2016) to gather several local accession collected in the most saffron growing area. These collections will be followed up, using a participative selection with farmers based on individual selection plants. Preliminary results are promising for identification of promoting corms to be used in the micro propagation, in order to have homogenous clones as basis corm for starting the large multiplication program.