Notices 1 Effective January 2007, the Discussion Paper series within each division and the Director General's Office of IFPRI were merged into one IFPRI-wide Discussion Paper series. The new series begins with number 00689, reflecting the prior publication of 688 discussion papers within the dispersed series. The earlier series are available on IFPRI's website at http://www.ifpri.org/publications/results/taxonomy%3A468. 2 IFPRI Discussion Papers contain preliminary material and research results. They have been peer reviewed, but have not been subject to a formal external review via IFPRI's Publications Review Committee. They are circulated in order to stimulate discussion and critical comment; any opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of IFPRI.

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Background: Global efforts are underway to develop staple crops with improved levels of provitamin A carotenoids to help combat dietary vitamin A deficiency, which has afflicted the health of resource-poor farmers in the developing world. As a staple crop for more than 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, cassava enriched with provitamin A carotenoids could have a widespread nutritional impact. Because cassava is the second most important food crop in Uganda, a breeding programme was initiated to develop provitamin A varieties, with some clones already tested in advanced yield selection trials. Methods: A survey was conducted to understand gender-based constraints and opportunities governing farmers' decisions to grow yellow-root cassava in Busia, a rural district in eastern Uganda. Logistic regression was computed to determine predictors of willingness to grow yellow-root cassava. Results: Men, women and youth involved in this study were all aware of a yellow-root cassava landrace popularly grown in eastern Uganda, with at least 85% of each group actively growing the cultivar at the time of this study. Interestingly, both men and women singled out early maturity and high fresh root yield as attributes influencing their preference for the yellow root. An assessment of household participation in cassava production and processing activities showed that women performed the bulk of such activities, with men particularly involved in land preparation and selling of products. Nonetheless, both women and men showed strong indication of acceptance and willingness to cultivate yellow-root cassava, which is an incentive for potential uptake of such varieties in future. However, there was poor knowledge on the nutritional benefits of yellow-root cassava, suggesting need for nutritional education when disseminating improved provitamin A cassava varieties. Conclusions: The study provides strong motivation towards breeding provitamin A cassava varieties that have farmer-preferred traits in the background of disease resistance, an output that could be attained through undertaking participatory variety selection trials.

What influences transfer of training in an African agricultural research network? The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture. CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.

The study was conducted to determine the role of training design and trainee characteristics in predicting the transfer of agronomic training among bean seed farmers in Uganda. Gender differences in levels of transfer were also studied. Data were from a sample survey of 300 respondents. Independent t-tests and hierarchical multivariate regression were used to answer the specific issues of the study. Results showed transfer was generally high, with women having a significantly higher training transfer than men. Using the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) model, we identified factors relating to trainee characteristics-motivation to transfer, readiness to learn and performance self-efficacy-that have shown a significant relationship with the transfer of training. We concluded by discussing potential implications for both theory and practice.

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