1.Biotechnology and Nuclear Agric Research

Institute, GAEC Kwabenya, Accra. 2. School of

Agriculture, University of Ghana, Legon. 3.

International Potato Center (CIP), c/o CSIR-CRI, P.O.

Box 3785, Kumasi, Ghana

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Abstract A Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was

carried out in three regions of Ghana to identify

farmers’ production constraints and

preferences for sweetpotato. Drought ranked

highest among the production constraints

identified. Farmers preferred poundable, low-

sweet and high dry matter varieties. The lack

of these traits in current cultivars is a limiting

factor to its frequent utilization in traditional

food preparations. Farmers expressed their

willingness to accept low-sugar, high dry matter

and poundable varieties. Drought tolerance,

high yielding, disease and pest resistance

ranked highest among preferred agronomic

traits.

Assessing production constraints and farmer preference for

sweetpotato through a PRA study and structured survey

Literature cited

FAOSTAT (2012). Food and Agricultural

Organization of the United Nations,

Production statistics [Online]. Available at

http://faostat.fao.org. (Accessed on 21st

September, 2010). FAO Rome, Italy.

Lin, K. H., Lai, Y. C., Chang, K. Y., Chen, Y. F.,

Hwang, S. Y., and LO, H. F. (2007). Improving

breeding efficiency for quality and yield of

sweetpotato. Botanical studies 48, 283-292.

Low, J. W., Arimond, M., Osman, N., Cunguara,

B., Zano, F., and Tschirley, D. (2007). A Food-

Based Approach. Introducing Orange-

Fleshed Sweetpotatoes Increased Vitamin A

Intake and Serum Retinol Concentrations in

Young Children in Rural Mozambique.

Journal of Nutrition 137, 1320-1327.

Conclusions 1.Farmers in Ghana prefer high dry

matter, poundable and low- sweet

sweetpotato

2.Current varieties are unsuitable for

use in traditional food preparations

3.New types for diversified usage

including utilization in traditional

food preparations are necessary.

4.In the development of new types

breeders must also consider

agronomic traits such as drought

and disease resistance

Acknowledgement

Results 1. Production constraints (Fig. 3)

• Farmers listed 14 constraints to production

• 44% ranked drought highest followed by

low market prices, high labour cost, low

utilization, pest and diseases.

4. Acceptance of low sweet cultivar

• 70% of farmers were willing to accept

low-sweet cultivars (Fig. 6)

Vivian Oduro 1, E. E. Blay 2, S. K. Offei 2, I.K. Asante 2 and E. E Carey 3

Materials and methods

A Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was

carried out in three regions of Ghana (Fig.

2.).Two or three districts within each region

was selected. Altogether, 647 farmers in 27

farming communities were involved in focus

group (Fig. 3) discussions using semi-

structured questionnaire, matrix and pairwise

ranking. Each focus group involved 15-30

farmers. PRA sites were geo-referenced with

GPS. One hundred and twenty structured

questionnaires were administered in each

region, to complement PRA study

Fig 2:Study areas within the 3 regions

Introduction Sweetpotato is nutritionally more superior

to most staples.(Lin et at, 2007; Low et al

2007). However, production in Ghana has

more or less stagnated over a decade (Fig.

1) with annual average production figures

of about 117,000 tons (FAOSTAT, 2011).

One factor among others, responsible for

this trend is the low investment in

sweetpotato research. Current varieties are

therefore inadequate in meeting farmers’

varietal needs, with a corresponding

deficiency in consumer preferred traits. To

understand the dynamics of sweetpotato

production and utilization in Ghana, it was

important to interact with farmers who are

both producers and users so as to identify

priority areas for research.

• Farmers listed 9 quality attributes they

would want in a sweetpotato (figure 4)

• Less sweet, poundable, flesh colour,

high dry matter were among the highest

ranked traits.

3. Agronomic and eating quality

• The highest ranked agronomic traits were

drought tolerance, disease & pest

resistance, high yields and good quality

vines

2. Local preparation methods

• Sweetpotato is prepared mainly in three ways

in Ghana (Fig. 4)