DIVERSIFOOD H2020 project
This technical booklet (Booklet #3) presents experimental designs, statistical methods and practical tools relevant to decentralized on‑farm breeding and participatory plant breeding (PPB). It outlines decision rules linking breeding objectives to experimental constraints and describes four field designs (fully replicated, incomplete block, row‑column, and satellite/regional farms) and families of analyses for common PPB objectives: predicting target traits, comparing germplasm across locations, studying multi‑environment responses, investigating diversity structure and selecting parents, and analysing seed circulation networks. Methods covered include CART, multivariate and linear regression, MARS, random forest, AMMI, GGE, spatial analysis (SpATS), mixed models, Bayesian hierarchical GxE models, molecular diversity analyses, and sensory protocols (napping, hedonic, ranking). The booklet also documents implementation in the R package PPBstats and provides guidance for data formatting, interpretation and visualization. It is produced as part of the Diversifood H2020 project and complements other Diversifood materials on participatory approaches.
Key topics: decentralized breeding, participatory plant breeding, experimental design, statistical methods, GxE, PPBstats, sensory analysis, network analysis
