Using ideotypes to support selection and recommendation of varieties

Climate change, synthetic input reduction and new cropping practices contribute to renew deeply and rapidly the cropping conditions and the required attributes of the varieties. To provide varieties adapted to those multiple cropping situations and objectives, stakeholders of selection, assessment and recommendation need new methods. Indeed, selecting a variety on a large number of objectives simultaneously may be complicated and inefficient. To improve the efficiency of the selection, Donald (1968) proposed an ideotype-based approach. It consists first in building a plant model by pointing out the mechanisms and plant traits to reach the goals and then only selecting varieties on those traits. To do so, a three-step method is presented: (i) defining the varietal specifications; (ii) designing and building an ideotype; and (iii) selecting varieties according to the ideotype and assessing their ability to meet the specifications. Tools available for helping the implementation of such a method are identified in different fields (computing, design, genetics…). This ideotype approach is presented as a valuable framework to support a collective design as it eases the interactions between stakeholders from different scientific and technical fields and the use of different forms of knowledge either scientific or empirical.