Varietal Identification in Household Surveys : Results from an Experiment Using DNA Fingerprinting of Sweet Potato Leaves in Southern Ethiopia
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) varieties have important nutritional differences and there is strong interest to identify nutritionally superior varieties for dissemination. In agricultural household surveys, this information is often collected base...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26764732/varietal-identification-household-surveys-results-experiment-using-dna-fingerprinting-sweet-potato-leaves-southern-ethiopia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25057 |
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okr-10986-250572021-06-14T10:16:14Z 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 agricultural survey varietal identification DNA fingerprinting nutrition Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) varieties have important nutritional differences and there is strong interest to identify nutritionally superior varieties for dissemination. In agricultural household surveys, this information is often collected based on the farmer's self-report. However, recent evidence has demonstrated the inherent difficulties in correctly identifying varieties from self-report information. This study examines the accuracy of self-report information on varietal identification from a data capture experiment on sweet potato varieties in southern Ethiopia. Three household-based methods of identifying varietal adoption are tested against the benchmark of DNA fingerprinting: (A) elicitation from farmers with basic questions for the most widely planted variety; (B) farmer elicitation on five sweet potato phenotypic attributes by showing a visual-aid protocol; and (C) enumerator recording observations on five sweet potato phenotypic attributes using a visual-aid protocol and visiting the field. The reference being the DNA fingerprinting, about 30 percent of improved varieties were identified as local or non-improved, and 20 percent of farmers identified a variety as local when it was in fact improved. The variety names given by farmers delivered inconsistent and fuzzy varietal identities. The visual-aid protocols employed in methods B and C were better than method A, but still way below the adoption estimates given by the DNA fingerprinting method. The findings suggest that estimating the adoption of improved varieties with methods based on farmer self-reports is questionable, and point toward a wider use of DNA fingerprinting, likely to become the gold standard for crop varietal identification. 2016-09-13T15:38:03Z 2016-09-13T15:38:03Z 2016-09 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26764732/varietal-identification-household-surveys-results-experiment-using-dna-fingerprinting-sweet-potato-leaves-southern-ethiopia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25057 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7812 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Ethiopia |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
agricultural survey varietal identification DNA fingerprinting nutrition |
| spellingShingle |
agricultural survey varietal identification DNA fingerprinting nutrition Kosmowski, Frederic Aragaw, Abiyot Kilian, Andrzej Ambel, Alemayehu Ilukor, John Yigezu, Biratu Stevenson, James Varietal Identification in Household Surveys : Results from an Experiment Using DNA Fingerprinting of Sweet Potato Leaves in Southern Ethiopia |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Ethiopia |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7812 |
| description |
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) varieties
have important nutritional differences and there is strong
interest to identify nutritionally superior varieties for
dissemination. In agricultural household surveys, this
information is often collected based on the farmer's
self-report. However, recent evidence has demonstrated the
inherent difficulties in correctly identifying varieties
from self-report information. This study examines the
accuracy of self-report information on varietal
identification from a data capture experiment on sweet
potato varieties in southern Ethiopia. Three household-based
methods of identifying varietal adoption are tested against
the benchmark of DNA fingerprinting: (A) elicitation from
farmers with basic questions for the most widely planted
variety; (B) farmer elicitation on five sweet potato
phenotypic attributes by showing a visual-aid protocol; and
(C) enumerator recording observations on five sweet potato
phenotypic attributes using a visual-aid protocol and
visiting the field. The reference being the DNA
fingerprinting, about 30 percent of improved varieties were
identified as local or non-improved, and 20 percent of
farmers identified a variety as local when it was in fact
improved. The variety names given by farmers delivered
inconsistent and fuzzy varietal identities. The visual-aid
protocols employed in methods B and C were better than
method A, but still way below the adoption estimates given
by the DNA fingerprinting method. The findings suggest that
estimating the adoption of improved varieties with methods
based on farmer self-reports is questionable, and point
toward a wider use of DNA fingerprinting, likely to become
the gold standard for crop varietal identification. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Kosmowski, Frederic Aragaw, Abiyot Kilian, Andrzej Ambel, Alemayehu Ilukor, John Yigezu, Biratu Stevenson, James |
| author_facet |
Kosmowski, Frederic Aragaw, Abiyot Kilian, Andrzej Ambel, Alemayehu Ilukor, John Yigezu, Biratu Stevenson, James |
| author_sort |
Kosmowski, Frederic |
| title |
Varietal Identification in Household Surveys : Results from an Experiment Using DNA Fingerprinting of Sweet Potato Leaves in Southern Ethiopia |
| title_short |
Varietal Identification in Household Surveys : Results from an Experiment Using DNA Fingerprinting of Sweet Potato Leaves in Southern Ethiopia |
| title_full |
Varietal Identification in Household Surveys : Results from an Experiment Using DNA Fingerprinting of Sweet Potato Leaves in Southern Ethiopia |
| title_fullStr |
Varietal Identification in Household Surveys : Results from an Experiment Using DNA Fingerprinting of Sweet Potato Leaves in Southern Ethiopia |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Varietal Identification in Household Surveys : Results from an Experiment Using DNA Fingerprinting of Sweet Potato Leaves in Southern Ethiopia |
| title_sort |
varietal identification in household surveys : results from an experiment using dna fingerprinting of sweet potato leaves in southern ethiopia |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2016 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26764732/varietal-identification-household-surveys-results-experiment-using-dna-fingerprinting-sweet-potato-leaves-southern-ethiopia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25057 |
| _version_ |
1764458264886509568 |