Participatory rural appraisal to identify farmer-preferred soybean traits in Ghana

Abstract

Soybean pod shattering remains an important constraint in soybean cultivation causing yield loss up to 100%. The objective of this study was to identify the varieties as well as the plant and grain traits of soybean preferred by farmers. A survey was conducted in three northern (Northern, Upper east and west) regions of Ghana.  A total of 192 farmers were reached and individual farmers were interviewed using structured questionnaire. The data collected was coded using a statistical software. Descriptive analyses were used to summarize the data into means, percentages and tabulations. Kendall Coefficient of Concordance procedure was implemented to ascertain the level of agreement among farmer preferred soybean traits. The study revealed that, despite the existence of pod shattering resistant varieties, many farmers still grow pod shattering susceptible varieties. They preferred these varieties because they were high yielding (Salintuya-I), early maturing (Sounpungun), and a trap crop for striga (Songda). The majority of farmers (98%) ranked yield (3.79), big seed size (4.03) and non-shattering (4.08) as the most important traits (Kendall’s W=0.379 P=00.00) across all regions. In addition, early maturing (4.45) and medium maturing varieties (4.45) were also ranked as important traits by all respondents. Therefore, breeding programmes should aim to develop varieties, taking into consideration farmer preferred traits to increase varietal adoption.