Abstract
Purpose: A cross-sectional survey was designed to study farmers’ preferences for rice varieties in Busia County, Kenya.
 Methodology: The survey used a multi-stage sampling technique for site selection and a purposive strategy for rice growers/producers. Data was collected from key rice value chain stakeholders including farmers, extension service providers, local leaders and hoteliers using focus group discussions by use of guiding checklists and a structured questionnaire. A total of 26 key informants and 62 individual respondents in the categories mentioned were interviewed. Descriptive analysis was done along with cross-tabulations to establish associations.
 Findings: Results indicated that rice was a significantly important farm enterprise among the respondents with a higher land allocation of 2.04 acres followed by maize with 1.14 acres. Seed sources were mainly traditional with fellow farmers being instrumental in seed sharing at cost (59.7% buying form other farmers) followed by free issues (19.4% getting free from other farmers). Research as a seed source lagged at 8.1%. Variety choice was said to be dictated by high yield, early maturity and one thousand seed weight by 80.6%, 77.4% and 40.3% respectively. These attributes were also ranked as first, second and third positions respectively. Rice production followed traditional patterns as 60% of producers/farmers depended on a farmer-to-farmer seed system over all the production periods. There also lacked structures and efforts to upscale rice production and therefore this paper recommends formulation and direction of concerted efforts towards on-farm participatory research and formation of social networks for rice production and marketing information
 Contribution to theory, practice and policy: The results give impetus to conclude that farmers know which traits are of priority in variety selection. Going by farmers’ perceptions simply means responding to consumer demand for quality in rice production. The study also demonstrated enormous potential for rice production as demonstrated by the will of the farmers to allocate 45% of their land parcels to rice production. It also brought out that the fact that certified rice seeds are rarely used and therefore, there is urgent need to establish seed systems and distribution pathways in order to improve on yields as well as quality of paddy hence more income to farmers and other rice value chain players. The concepts of field demonstrations and on-farm participatory research need to be up-scaling for enhanced transformation of rice production landscape in the region.
Highlights
A cross-sectional survey was designed to study farmers’ preferences for rice varieties in Busia County, Kenya
The results documented are original to the survey procedures and findings and are interpreted in line with the subject of this paper as perceived by the key informants and the individual questionnaire responses analyzed on a cross-sectional basis
The study facilitated knowledge sharing among the stakeholders who included the farmers, rice value chain stakeholder and the research team
Summary
Rice production in Kenya dates back to 1907 when it was introduced by Europeans at the Coast (Kouko, 1997; Onyango, 2014). There has been recently released varieties that include MWIR2, MWUR4, TXD306 (SARO5), IR05N221 (Komboka), CSR36, 08FAN10 and hybrid rice but the uptake by the farming community remain low due to lack of awareness due to very low demonstrations of these good varieties, lack of certified seeds, low extension service provision to support farmers on good agricultural management practices among other support needed This is despite the enormous potential for rice production that exist in the county and the country at large there is urgent need to change the rice production landscape through stimulating producers to respond to the different value chain actors’ preferences for specific attributes in rice or generally the market demand for rice (Atera, et al, 2018). At some point in time, farmers may solely be consumers due to total lack of the rice varieties they prefer due to one reason or another
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