A review of varietal change in roots, tubers and bananas: consumer preferences and other drivers of adoption and implications for breeding

Abstract

This review of the literature on varietal change in sub-Saharan Africa looks in detail at adoption of new varieties of bananas in Uganda, cassava in Nigeria, potato in Kenya, sweetpotato in Uganda and yams in Côte d'Ivoire. The review explored three hypotheses about drivers of varietal change. There was a strong confirmation for the hypothesis that insufficient priority given to consumer-preferred traits by breeding programmes contributes to the limited uptake of modern varieties (MVs) and low varietal turnover. Lack of evidence meant the second hypothesis of insufficient attention to understanding and responding to gender differences in consumer preferences for quality and post-harvest traits was unresolved. The evidence on the third hypothesis about the informal seed system contributing to slow uptake of MVs was mixed. In some cases, the informal system has contributed to rapid uptake of MVs, but often it appears to be a barrier with inconsistent varietal naming a major challenge.

Integrating end‐user preferences into breeding programmes for roots, tubers and bananas

“…Papers address key problems in the breeding of RTB crops in SSA: inadequate understanding of requirements for different end uses, missing information on the physicochemical factors determining these requirements and absence of high‐throughput screening protocols. The review papers provide a broad overview of RTB production and use trends (Scott, 2021), describe case studies of varietal change (replacing old varieties with new ones) (Thiele et al ., 2021), summarise analytical methods for rapid quality assessment of yam and cassava using near‐infrared spectroscopy (Alamu et al ., 2021), describe gari end‐user preferences (Awoyale et al ., 2021) and review the literature to develop a product profile for fried sweet potato in West Africa (Carey et al ., 2021).…”

“…As progress in these basic requirements has been met, they must now focus on end‐product quality traits and processor and consumer preferences for quality characteristics. Processing ability and quality of end products are a common issue across improved varieties of RTBs, and this can contribute to low levels of varietal adoption and its subsequent benefits (Thiele et al ., 2021).…”

From cassava to gari: mapping of quality characteristics and end‐user preferences in Cameroon and Nigeria

“…Often, farmers and processors will prefer earlier varieties, higher yielding and more dense/heavy (dry matter) roots but they will then assume that any new root will have the same quality of the varieties they are used to. Thiele et al (2020) show, using data from a large cassava adoption study (Wossen et al, 2017), that in Nigeria, the largest area attributed to improved varieties is occupied by unreleased breeders' material that are either the result of escaped clones from breeder trials or clones grown from botanic seed from released or unreleased material. This supports the case that it is not access to improved varieties that results into low adoption but makes a case for a large part of released varieties not living up to the quality characteristics assumed to be present in an 'improved' variety.…”

The East African highland cooking bananas ‘Matooke’ preferences of farmers and traders: Implications for variety development

“…Studies on hybrid evaluation and adoption in cassava, banana and rice hybrids show that despite the huge investments, adoption rates for hybrids are low as often they do not meet market needs that are driven by end-user preference (Sebasigari, 1996;Bechoff et al, 2018;Joshi & Bauer, 2006;Smale, & Tushemereirwe, 2007;Asante, 2013;Thiele et al, 2021). Farmers' perceptions and experiences about the attributes of varieties are important factors that influence their variety use decisions (Wale, 2012).…”