Effect of varietal attributes on the adoption of an orange-fleshed sweetpotato variety in Upper East and Northern Ghana

Abstract

Despite sustained economic growth and reduction in some of forms of malnutrition, Ghana still faces a national prevalence rate of 20.8% vitamin A deficiency (VAD) among for children 6–59 months old. Orange-fleshed sweetpotato ( Ipomoea batatas L.) (OFSP) can significantly improve vitamin A intake and contribute toward reducing VAD, especially in Northern Ghana where VAD is 31% among young children. Several poverty and nutrition projects in Ghana have promoted the use of OFSP for its health benefits. This study assesses the effect of three varietial attributes on adoption of the first released OFSP variety in Northern Ghana namely, Apomuden. The study concluded that sweetness, taste and dry matter have joint significant effects on adoption of an OFSP variety. The positive and negative traits highlighted will inform the on-going breeding effort.

Review of knowledge to guide product development and breeding for sweetpotato frying quality in West Africa

“…Adekambi et al . (2020b) reported, however, that the taste and low dry matter content of a widely promoted OFSP variety in Ghana were deterrents to its adoption, though these were offset by other desirable attributes.…”

The tricot citizen science approach applied to on-farm variety evaluation: methodological progress and perspectives

“…As has been indicated above, tricot trials imply sampling a representative range of use contexts, which are characterized not only by environmental variation, but also by gender and social heterogeneity, which will have an effect on variety preferences through various proximate causal factors. Firstly, crop management tends to reflect cultural and socio-economic conditions and identities (Adekambi et al, 2020). For example, the ability to purchase fertilizers or spend sufficient labor on weeding will influence how the trial plots are managed and will influence perceptions of variety performance.…”

“…Another example is that farmers and processors might favor a particular variety because of its suitability for preparing a food product that is locally important or consumed by a particular social segment of the population. For example, farmers' orientation towards market production and household consumption can influence how they perceive traits related to marketability, cooking or taste (Adekambi et al, 2020). Thirdly, the degree to which farmers that participate in tricot trials have adequate knowledge of a different aspect of variety performance will depend on their involvement in different agronomic, processing and culinary activities (Teeken et al, 2020).…”

Applications of Genomic Tools in Plant Breeding: Crop Biofortification

“…This point is especially important in the case of controversial goods, such as transgenic biofortified food. That should be accompanied by promotion campaigns to make the product’s beneficial properties public, as the one carried out with the orange-flesh sweet potato biofortified in pro-vitamin A in Ghana and Nigeria [ 48 ]. For the second objective, analyses of micronutrient bioavailability and their efficacy of conversion in the human body will have to be performed, as reported in intervention studies which supply vitamin A-biofortified maize to Zambian children with promising results [ 49 ].…”