Scaling up the adoption of positive selection and seed-plot techniques in seed potato systems in Uganda - UNSPPA's experience.

Abstract

Abstract Accessing quality seed potato by smallholder farmers has continued to be a major challenge to increased potato production. An intervention by the Uganda National Seed Potato Producers' Association (UNSPPA) with support from the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), the International Potato Center (CIP) and the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) aimed to promote the adoption of positive selection (PS) and seed-plot techniques in south-western Uganda, a major potato production zone in the country. In a participatory approach with farmers, trials were set up to compare seed potato yields produced by PS and seed obtained from farmers' own practice. Using PS, an increase of 34% or 6.8 t/ha was recorded compared with farmer's seed. This provides an economic gain with minimal or no increase in cash investment. Another approach called the seed-plot technique in which small quantities of high-quality seed are grown under intensive management on raised beds at close spacing was also demonstrated on-farm in participatory experiments involving researchers, development agents and farmers. Validations indicated that the seed-plot technique achieved two-and-a-half to three times land productivity and about 50% bacterial wilt reduction compared with conventional ridge planting. Under different programmes supported by ASARECA, CIP, Carry American Relief Everywhere (CARE) Enterprise, Environment and Equity in the Great Lakes (EEEGL), National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) and NARO, these techniques have reached 5890 farmers from south-western Uganda, out of which 80% have adopted the technologies. It was revealed that such simple technologies can enhance the quality of seed potato used by smallholder farmers every season. It was further shown that technology adoption was achieved faster through stakeholder participatory experimentation and group learning.