Diverging quality preferences along the supply chain: implications for variety choice by potato growers in Ethiopia

Improving the introduction of new potato varieties requires aligning the preferences of all supply chain actors. In Ethiopia, the majority of ware potato growers source their seed from the informal supply system. Using a case study on specialised seed growers and a survey among ware potato growers and downstream chain actors, we explore the quality attributes that could influence the variety choices of farmers and downstream actors. Especially, we analysed the link between the seed and ware potato supply chains, farmers’ evaluation of local and improved potato varieties, and quality differences between the local and improved varieties. We found that farmers’ variety choices are well-aligned with traders’ preferences but varieties supplied by the specialised seed potato growers are not well accepted by ware potato growers. As a result, ware potato farmers continue to grow local varieties, which are inferior in terms of production-related quality attributes, but superior regarding market-related quality attributes. The results imply that enhancing production-related quality attributes is not enough to induce farmers to accept new potato varieties. We recommend breeding institutes and seed potato growers to put more emphasis on market-related quality attributes to enhance choice alignment in the full potato chain.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Abebe, G.K., Bijman, J., Pascucci, S., Omta, S.W.F., Tsegaye, A.
Format:	Part of book or chapter of book biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	Wageningen Academic Publishers
Subjects:	Market related quality attributes, Production related quality attributes, Quality preferences, Variety choice,
Online Access:	https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/diverging-quality-preferences-along-the-supply-chain-implications
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