How Can Pairing Quantitative With Qualitative Data Collection Methods Better Elicit Rice Varietal Selection? Evidence From Burundi

Mary Ng’endo, Julien Nduwimana, Donald Villanueva and Matty Demont

SAGE Open, 2023, vol. 13, issue 4, 21582440231218579

Abstract: Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) is the selection by stakeholders of varieties in advanced testing stages by plant breeding programs. With Burundi as a case example, this study incorporated qualitative Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) into the quantitative PVS structure so as to elicit deeper insights into rice trait preferences and illuminate broader issues affecting rice farmers. During two consecutive years, this study surveyed 174 participants across six stakeholder groups (administrators, farmers, custom millers, researchers, seed producers, and traders) in three locations. There were statistically significant associations in rice trait preferences across locations, participating stakeholders, and genders, highlighting preference alignment. Moreover, multiple traits were desired simultaneously, beyond productivity-related traits, and sometimes contradicting researchers’ preferences, especially in rainfed systems. By moving beyond quantitative PVS preference scores as being the only way of gathering trait preference data, this study has shown how the incorporation of qualitative FGDs into the PVS structure can elicit deeper insights on trait preferences and illuminate broader issues affecting rice farmers, which when solved can accelerate the momentum in widespread adoption of new rice varieties.

Keywords: PVS; rice; gender; irrigation; rainfed; Burundi (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440231218579 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:13:y:2023:i:4:p:21582440231218579

DOI: 10.1177/21582440231218579

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in SAGE Open
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().