Farmers’ Preference for Plantain Attributes in Nigeria: A Best-Worst Scaling Approach

Plantain is an important staple crop which plays key role in enhancing food security and livelihoods. However, the productivity of existing varieties is being threatened by biotic and abiotic factors hence, the need for breeding improved and resilient varieties. Understanding trait preferences of producers is a major step in developing a demand-driven breeding programme that will deliver acceptable products. Therefore, the study investigated farmers’ preferences for plantain attributes in southern Nigeria using a Best-worst scaling approach. A multistage sampling technique was used to sample 445 plantain farmers in the southern Nigeria where plantain production is predominant and data were obtained with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire. Results showed that the sampled plantain farmers were mostly male (74.2%), married (83.6%), educated (95.2%) and with mean age (45.18±11.30 years), household size (7±4 members) and years of experience in plantain production (13.35±8.97). The Best-worst scaling results revealed that the four most important attributes to the farmers were “early maturity”, “heavy bunch”, “big fingers” and “many (full) fingers on bunch” in that order, while “dwarf plant height”, “firm pulp” and “thick peel” were the least important in that order of sequence. Considering the relative importance and ranking of the attributes, the first four top ranked attributes were “big fingers”, “early maturity”, “heavy bunch” and “pest and disease resistance”, while the first four lowest ranked attributes were “thick peel”, “firm pulp”, “dark green peel at maturity” and “dwarf plant height”. These results have important implications for improving plantain hybrids for better adoption and impact in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that farmers’ preference be taken into consideration while breeding for new varieties. Improved plantain varieties which have all the best preferred or most important attributes may boost farmers’ productivity and food production in Nigeria.