Men and women’s perception of yellow-root cassava among rural farmers in eastern Uganda

BACKGROUND: Global efforts are underway to develop staple crops with improved levels of provitamin A carotenoids to help combat dietary vitamin A deficiency, which has afflicted the health of resource-poor farmers in the developing world. As a staple crop for more than 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, cassava enriched with provitamin A carotenoids could have a widespread nutritional impact. Because cassava is the second most important food crop in Uganda, a breeding programme was initiated to develop provitamin A varieties, with some clones already tested in advanced yield selection trials. METHODS: A survey was conducted to understand gender-based constraints and opportunities governing farmers’ decisions to grow yellow-root cassava in Busia, a rural district in eastern Uganda. Logistic regression was computed to determine predictors of willingness to grow yellow-root cassava. RESULTS: Men, women and youth involved in this study were all aware of a yellow-root cassava landrace popularly grown in eastern Uganda, with at least 85% of each group actively growing the cultivar at the time of this study. Interestingly, both men and women singled out early maturity and high fresh root yield as attributes influencing their preference for the yellow root. An assessment of household participation in cassava production and processing activities showed that women performed the bulk of such activities, with men particularly involved in land preparation and selling of products. Nonetheless, both women and men showed strong indication of acceptance and willingness to cultivate yellow-root cassava, which is an incentive for potential uptake of such varieties in future. However, there was poor knowledge on the nutritional benefits of yellow-root cassava, suggesting need for nutritional education when disseminating improved provitamin A cassava varieties. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides strong motivation towards breeding provitamin A cassava varieties that have farmer-preferred traits in the background of disease resistance, an output that could be attained through undertaking participatory variety selection trials.