Farmers’ heterogeneous preferences for traits of improved varieties: Informing demand-oriented crop breeding in Tanzania

Abstract

Summary Understanding farmers’ preferences and willingness to pay for different traits is critical for demand-driven varietal development and designing targeted strategies that stimulate adoption of varieties by farmers. This study uses choice experiment data from a random sample of 1299 Tanzanian farmers to analyze their preferences for traits of groundnut varieties, investigate trade-offs involved in valuation of attributes, and explore heterogeneity in preferences. Results reveal that farmers have strong preferences for groundnut varieties that are high yielding, tolerant to environmental stresses, early-maturing, red-colored, and fetching high sale prices in grain markets. Farmers are willing to pay the highest premium for high-yielding attributes, closely followed by the tolerance trait. Further, a latent class analysis identifies four distinct classes of farmers, confirming considerable heterogeneity in farmers’ preferences for various groundnut traits. A specific distinction is notable between preferences of consumption-oriented and market-oriented farmer classes. Our results have important implications for demand-driven variety development and targeted dissemination of improved varieties.

Q&A: Methods for estimating genetic gain in sub‐Saharan Africa and achieving improved gains

“…To achieve this, breeders should engage customers and other stakeholders through surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gather valuable feedback on desired traits, market demands, and cultivation practices. Notably, recent studies (Naa Ashiokai Prempeh et al, 2024;Nakitto et al, 2023;Nchanji et al, 2023;Regassa et al, 2023) exemplify the practical application of customer data in this context. Guided by the TPP framework, breeders can identify target traits and establish performance benchmarks that harmonize with market demands and cultivation practices.…”