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.

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Given the challenges brought about by the increasing frequency of climatic stressors (droughts) and other biotic challenges (pests and diseases), breeding for tolerance to these traits is now seen as an indispensable adjunct to the enhancement of yield potential. Drought tolerant (DT) maize varieties that do well under moderate drought and outperform (or do not underperform) commercial checks under normal rainfall are becoming available. This study examines the role of these maize varieties in mitigating the effects of drought on maize yields in drought-prone areas of eastern Uganda. We estimate the causal impact of these new generations of maize varieties using a multinomial endogenous switching regression treatment effect framework. The average treatment effects of adopting DT maize show that farmers who actually cultivated DT maize achieve 30% more yield than what they would have obtained with non-DT hybrids. Similarly, average treatment effects on the untreated, revealed that farmers who grew non-DT modern and local maize would have 32 and 54% more yield, respectively, if they instead had adopted DT maize. While being superior to all other maize seeds, the magnitudes of the benefits of DT maize varieties were more pronounced in areas with comparatively less rainfall amount providing strong evidence that the yield potential of these varieties is stable across space and a wide range of rainfall conditions. If the genetic gains of these varieties can be secured over the long term, their impacts in improving the resilience of maize farming systems are likely to be considerably large and favorable.

Adoption and wider diffusion of improved Teff varieties (Quncho) are playing a vital role overriding present situation of food insecurity in many parts of Ethiopia. However, the use of improved teff varieties are constrained by various factors. Hence, in this study, an attempt was made to examine factors affecting the adoption and use of improved teff varieties (Quncho) regarding attributes of varietal preferences of small-holder farmers. A multi-stage random sampling technique was employed to select 249 sample households from Assosa district and Mao-Komo special district. Descriptive statistical tools like mean, percentage, frequency distribution and t-test were used to summarize the characteristics of the sampled households. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data collected during 2015/16 production season. About 58.23% of the sampled household were adopters while 41.77% of them didn't adopt improved Teff varieties (Quncho) in the study area. The finding of this study suggest that farmers in the area seek specific varietal attributes, such as yield potential, tolerance to disease and lodging, better Teff grain price and color, etc. The farmers' preferences with improved Teff varieties-specific characteristics significantly determine adoption decisions, which suggests the need to go beyond the commonly considered socio-economic, demographic and institutional factors in the adoption process. There is a need to target small-holder farmers' characteristics, priorities and production constraints while improved Teff varietal developments considering users preferences. Therefore, the research centers and extension system has to give more attention to participatory research which considers farmers' priorities and needs. Contribution/Originality:The contribution of this paper is to analyze the preferences and perception of small-holder farmers towards attributes of improved teff varieties adoption and infer farmers' perception of the new agricultural technology packages. Thus, the paper's primary contribution is finding that investigating the farmers' varietal trait preference and characteristics of varieties required by farmers that would enhance the acceptance of the technologies in the farming community.

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