Título
Misidentification by farmers of the crop varieties they grow: lessons from DNA fingerprinting of wheat in Ethiopia
Autor
Moti Jaleta
Kindie Tesfaye
Bekele Abeyo
Ayele Badebo Huluka
Olaf Erenstein
Nivel de Acceso
Acceso Abierto
Materias
Resumen o descripción
Accurate identification of crop varieties grown by farmers is crucial, among others, for crop management, food security and varietal development and dissemination purposes. One may expect varietal identification to be more challenging in the context of developing countries where literacy and education are limited and informal seed systems and seed recycling are common. This paper evaluates the extent to which smallholder farmers misidentify their wheat varieties in Ethiopia and explores the associated factors and their implications. The study uses data from a nationally representative wheat growing sample household survey and DNA fingerprinting of seed samples from 3,884 wheat plots in major wheat growing zones of Ethiopia. 28-34% of the farmers correctly identified their wheat varieties. Correct identification was positively associated with farmer education and seed purchases from trusted sources (cooperatives or known farmers) and negatively associated with seed recycling. Farmers' varietal identification thereby is problematic and leads to erroneous results in adoption and impact assessments. DNA fingerprinting can enhance varietal identification but remains mute in the identification of contextual and explanatory factors. Thus, combining household survey and DNA fingerprinting approaches is needed for reliable varietal adoption and impact assessments, and generate useful knowledge to inform policy recommendations related to varietal replacement and seed systems development.
Fecha de publicación
2020
Tipo de publicación
Artículo
Recurso de información
Formato
application/pdf
Idioma
Inglés
Audiencia
Investigadores
Repositorio Orígen
Repositorio Institucional de Publicaciones Multimedia del CIMMYT
Descargas
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