By Herbert Musoke
Leni Mulamba, a farmer from Bugiri planted 1kg of fresh hybrid Bazooka maize and harvested about 100kgs. On recycling 1kg of the harvested grain as seed, he harvested 30kgs while 1kg of the local seed gave him 20kgs.
Mulamba is one of the hundreds of farmers who participated in the research on the role of producer and customer traits in increasing the adoption of improved seed varieties in both maize and sweet potato.
At a research sharing and validation workshop attended by Mulumba and other seed sector stakeholders from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries, Non-governmental organizations, District Local Government and farmers, Dr. Julius Okello, a senior scientist in impact assessment and the principal investigator for sweet potato study at the International Potato Centre (CIP) explained that the research was done under the CGIAR Market intelligence research initiative by CIP and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on maize and CGIAR on sweet potato.
According to Leocardia Nabwire, a Research Analyst at IFPRI, semi-subsistence farmers often play dual roles as both producers and consumers of the same crop. Decisions regarding the crop selected are thus influenced by both household food security needs and market-oriented considerations.
She explains that breeding programs and sensitization efforts often prioritize production-related traits like yield, drought and pest tolerance among others yet exploratory evidence suggests that consumer-oriented traits such as taste, colour, texture, and aroma among others influence farmers’ variety selection.
The research, therefore, was to ascertain how integrating these consumer traits along production advantages is crucial for driving demand for improved crop varieties.
Maize case
Leocardia Nabwire explains that the research started in 2022 with field experiment to assess the effectiveness of two interventions designed to enhance the adoption of improved maize seed varieties among smallholder farmers in eastern districts of Iganga, Bugiri, Bugweri, Mayuge and Kamuli.
“Along the production traits, a sample of 780 farmers were provided with free sample seed packs of bazooka variety which is a not widely adopted improved maize variety allowing them to directly experience its production-related traits,” Nabwire explains.
With the consumption traits, the team organized cooking demonstrations and blind-tasting sessions among 780 households to sample a maize meal made from an improved variety with that from local varieties focusing on consumption traits like texture, taste, easy cooking, aroma, and shelf life among others.
She explains that the two interventions improved perceptions of the locals about improved planting seed varieties. The cooking demonstration, however, increased the adoption of improved seed varieties as those who received sample packs were more likely to recycle the grain.
She says that farmers are fond of recycling the seed especially that given to them by organizations and it performs because they don’t trust agro-input dealers to give them the same quality and also don’t want to lose their variety and yet recycled will give them better yield than the local variety.
Sweet potato
Dr. Julius Okello explains that sweet potato is a key part of the food system in the Teso sub-region eaten in all forms, Mukeke being the most famous.
“Our research shows that a person consumes about 83kgs of sweet potatoes a year yet it employs many people. We took on this crop because the yield is very low at about an average of 4 tns compared to about 14 tns per hectare,” he says.
The study was carried out in Teso sub-region among 15 sub-counties with 120 villages and 902 smallholder farmers were involved.
“We also used the same strategy of giving out improved sweet potato vines for different varieties but farmers had to pay some little money to get it from multipliers,” Dr. Okello says.
Among the varieties given out include, Ejumula, Osukut/Tanzania, Joweria/Naspot 13 and Naspot 9 to compare with their local varieties and also carried a cooking taste where households were given tubbers to cook the usual way and then taste on traits of taste, aroma, texture, processing among others.
Among the challenges leading to low adoption of improved sweet potato varieties, is the prolonged drought that wipes everything in the regions and they have to source the planting material outside but also the gender issue where women are more adoptive yet they don’t own land.
Low adoption of improved seed
Dr. Godfrey Asea, a crop breeder with the National Crop Resources Research Institute under the National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO), shows concern that Uganda’s adoption of improved seed is only at 35% yet using improved seed increases production to more than double.
He applauds the team for the report saying it is going to help them in research and introduction of more varieties as much has been put into production yet on many occasions the producers are the very consumers which means they will always pick what tastes best.
“Farmers have at times rejected varieties that don’t meet their tests and preferences and instead stick to their local varieties which have proved dear to them,” he says.
Dr. Asea adds that there is a need to promote mechanization, value addition and sensitization of farmers about the new varieties as this will lead to improved production and productivity.
He stressed the need for farmers to buy improved seed at all planting seasons citing Mulamba who was given just one kilogram of Bazooka improved seed and harvested 100kg of grain.
“If sold at shs600, he will earn shs60, 000. This makes economic sense and if you are thinking of going commercial, you should be ready to invest,” he says.
Dr. Samuel Mugasi, the executive director of the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), highlights that despite the fact that farmers could adapt to improved seeds because of the consumer traits, the production traits are still outstanding.
“As we strive to modernize and transform agriculture in Uganda from subsistence to commercial agriculture, the market we produce for only demand for quality products and the consumer traits like aroma, taste is secondary,” he says.
Dr. Mugasi however, cites the low fertilizer application by Ugandans yet the soils are depleted and can’t produce much.
“We thus need to encourage farmers to fertilize their soils so that it can produce much. Also, we need to make the farmers know the availability of crop seed varieties on the market,” he added.
LEAD PHOTO CAPTION: Dr. Samuel Mugasi, the ED NAADS deliberating on the way forward on new variety adopting.
