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Farmers’ preferences for attributes of rice varieties in Sierra Leone

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Abstract

Farmers’ preferences and needs are crucial in improving the development of rice varieties to increase rice production and improve food security. However, research on farmers’ preferences for crop attributes is scarce in Africa. This study contributes to bridging this gap by focusing on farmers’ preferences for rice variety attributes based on a nationwide survey conducted in Sierra Leone. Results from a Best-Worst Scaling analysis revealed that potential yield, maturity, pest and disease resistance, and seed longevity, were the most preferred attributes of a rice variety. The least preferred attributes were ease of threshing, fertiliser response, and shattering. After applying a latent class model, farmers were found to align with six distinct classes: “majority farmers”, “price sensitive”, “conservationists”, “sustainable farmers”, “output maximisers”, and “subsistence”. These classes showed differences in terms of the farmers’ characteristics (e.g. sex, education, income, farm farming experience, and farmland size) and in the importance given to extrinsic factors (e.g. access to market, extension services, and membership in farmers’ organisations). Among these classes, the “majority farmers” were more likely to have relatively more farmland, easier access to other farm resources (e.g., chemical fertilisers and market information) and are more likely to prefer potential yield. The “price sensitive” class placed high importance on seed price and consisted of farmers who were low income, and had better access to extension services and membership to farming organisations. Furthermore, preferences were distinct for “conservationists” who have environmental and sustenance concerns.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC-71273233) and the Zhejiang Provincial Philosophical and Social Sciences Research Grant (No.13ZJQN046YB). We are also grateful to all the District Officers and Extension Agents of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security in Sierra Leone for their dedication and assistance. We appreciate the efforts and hard work of our field enumerators (Messrs. Milton Kabbia, Edward Ndoko of the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute; Messr Mohamed Feika, Alpha Sesay, Brima Samking and Dr. M.K. Sesay of Njala University, Sierra Leone) and all others who contributed in one way or the other for their dedication to duty and timely execution of the survey without which this research would not have been successful. Similarly, we thank our research assistants in the Zhejiang University especially Yu Jiang and Rao Yuan for all their inputs.

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  1. Shaosheng Jin and Bashiru Mansaray contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Academy for Rural Development (CARD), Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Shaosheng Jin & Xin Jin

  2. School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Bashiru Mansaray

  3. Department of Agricultural Economics, School of Social Sciences, Njala University, Private Mail Bag, Freetown, Sierra Leone

    Bashiru Mansaray

  4. Institute for Advanced Research, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Haoyang Li

  5. Key Laboratory of Mathematical Economics (SUFE), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Haoyang Li

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  1. Shaosheng Jin
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Jin, S., Mansaray, B., Jin, X. et al. Farmers’ preferences for attributes of rice varieties in Sierra Leone. Food Sec. 12, 1185–1197 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-020-01019-w

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