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Participatory Rural Appraisal of Farmers’ Preferences For Yellow Cassava Cultivars and Intervention Through Breeding
Abstract
Farmers’ attitudes to new or improved cassava technologies have been rather slow in Nigeria. A participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and sensory evaluation was conducted in Abia, Imo and Ebonyi states of Nigeria to assess farmers’ preferences for cassava with yellow storage root. Almost all the farmers consume cassava or its products at least, once daily. More than eighty percent of farmers have not heard or read of high-carotene enrichment present in yellow fleshed storage root cassava or health challenges caused by heavy consumption of white-fleshed cassava storage root low in vitamin A. Seventeen clones were grown in the surveyed areas, with more that seventy percent identified as bitter, indicating the relatively high prevalence of bitter cassava. Some of the farmers’ preferred traits include high yield, early maturity, pests and diseases tolerance, yellow fleshed roots, sweetness, high dry matter, easy peeling, marketable roots and roots that keep long in ground without decaying. Dry matter for the most preferred cultivars above forty percent are found to be important in both sweet and bitter cultivars. These traits identified are closely connected and affect each other. In order to increase the awareness, acceptability and adoption rate of yellow-fleshed storage root cassava cultivars, participatory rural appraisal and ex-ante adoption was introduced to the study areas.
Key words: Cassava, Farmer, Nigeria, Vitamin A, breeding
