Varietal Identification in Household Surveys : Results from an Experiment Using DNA Fingerprinting of Sweet Potato Leaves in Southern Ethiopia

Kosmowski, Frederic ; Aragaw, Abiyot ; Kilian, Andrzej ; Ambel, Alemayehu ; Ilukor, John ; Yigezu, Biratu ; Stevenson, James

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: agricultural survey;    varietal identification;    DNA fingerprinting;    nutrition;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7812
RP-ID  :  WPS7812

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) varietieshave important nutritional differences and there is stronginterest to identify nutritionally superior varieties fordissemination. In agricultural household surveys, thisinformation is often collected based on the farmer'sself-report. However, recent evidence has demonstrated theinherent difficulties in correctly identifying varietiesfrom self-report information. This study examines theaccuracy of self-report information on varietalidentification from a data capture experiment on sweetpotato varieties in southern Ethiopia. Three household-basedmethods of identifying varietal adoption are tested againstthe benchmark of DNA fingerprinting: (A) elicitation fromfarmers with basic questions for the most widely plantedvariety; (B) farmer elicitation on five sweet potatophenotypic attributes by showing a visual-aid protocol; and(C) enumerator recording observations on five sweet potatophenotypic attributes using a visual-aid protocol andvisiting the field. The reference being the DNAfingerprinting, about 30 percent of improved varieties wereidentified as local or non-improved, and 20 percent offarmers identified a variety as local when it was in factimproved. The variety names given by farmers deliveredinconsistent and fuzzy varietal identities. The visual-aidprotocols employed in methods B and C were better thanmethod A, but still way below the adoption estimates givenby the DNA fingerprinting method. The findings suggest thatestimating the adoption of improved varieties with methodsbased on farmer self-reports is questionable, and pointtoward a wider use of DNA fingerprinting, likely to becomethe gold standard for crop varietal identification.