Abstract

Purpose Potato is a major food staple in Africa, but its production is constrained by poor quality of seed. A recent private-public partnership in Tanzania resulted in introduction of new higher yielding varieties. The purpose of this paper is to examine smallholder farmers' motivations to invest in the purchase of quality seed of new potato varieties, and if the motivational structure differs by gender.Design/methodology/approach The paper used means-end chain (MEC) theory combined with goal priming, and laddering interviews on randomly sampled participants (n=45) of an experimental auction conducted among smallholder farmers in Tanzania. The auction was designed to goal-prime respondents on benefits of quality seed. The mental constructs obtained were grouped into attributes, consequences and values, and MECAnalyst software used to generate hierarchical value maps.Findings Farmers invest in quality seed of a new variety to increase yields, hence income, and also to pursue personal life goals (values) or meet psychosocial needs. The structure of mental constructs associated with the decision to invest in quality seed of a new variety differ by gender.Research limitations/implications The study focused on only two new varieties, hence not robust to all new potato varieties. Results need to be tested under different socioeconomic contexts. Furthermore, the MEC approach does not allow for control of other variables that likely influence farmer adoption decision-making process. Future studies should be designed to tackle these limitations.Practical implications Investment in quality seed of new variety is driven by monetary goals and psychosocial factors, and some of these factors differ between male and female farmers.Originality/value This is the first study to explore drivers of farmers' decision to use quality seed of a new variety using MEC analysis, and role psychosocial factors play.

Keywords

Gender; Smallholder farmers; Goal priming; Means-end chain analysis; New variety; Quality seed

Published in

British Food Journal
2018, Volume: 120, number: 7, pages: 1430-1445
Publisher: EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD

SLU Authors

• Lagerkvist, Carl-Johan

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls


UKÄ Subject classification

Economics


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2017-0612

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/96427