Evaluation of sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) germplasm from north-eastern Uganda through a Farmer Participatory Approach

Ugandan farmers grow many landrace sweetpotato varieties, but some of these are relatively low yielding and susceptible to pests. The objective of the present research was to involve farmers in a large-scale assessment of Ugandan farmers’ varieties to rapidly identify those with superior yield performance, pest resistance and consumer acceptance. One hundred sixty distinct farmers’ varieties collected from Lira, Soroti, Katakwi, Kumi and Pallisa Districts of North-eastern Uganda were evaluated in on-station trials. Trials were conducted at two sites (Serere Agricultural and Animal Research Institute and Arapai Agricultural College) in Soroti District in the second rainy season of 1999. Twenty-five farmers from surrounding areas participated in trial harvest at each site. At harvest, fresh storage root yield, foliage yield, and dry matter content were determined by researchers. Farmers observed a number of characteristics and rated each entry with respect to the following variables: general impression, dry matter content, pests, and defects. A strong positive correlation was observed between farmers’ general impression and yield and harvest index in the trials. Farmers selected 10 superior varieties from each trial for further multi-environment, on-station and on-farm trials. Coincidentally, nine of the selected varieties were common to both sites