Research Spotlights shine a light on NextGen Fellows and researchers to bring their work to a broader audience.
Watch Durodola’s presentation from the 2021 NextGen Annual Meeting:
Validation of marketer’s adopted seed varieties for enterprise using molecular proof
Q & A with Durodola
What is your hypothesis? And were your findings what you thought they would be or were you surprised by anything?
My objective was to examine varieties cassava stem marketing farmers cultivate and sell, and which trait preferences specific groups were looking for. However, my findings were interesting in that farmers are selling both land races and improved seeds. One other striking thing is that we discovered 12 varieties that are not in any national programs or gene bank. Many farmers identified these varieties as high quality and important to their outputs.
What is one key message you would like people to take away from your research?
Plant breeders should understand that elicitation from the marketing segment must be a formalized step in the overall breeding cycle. By continuously searching for improved seeds that have quality traits beyond yield, farmers demonstrate great interest in replacing their older cultivated seeds.
Where does your work fit into NextGen?
My study is a diversity study, investigating seed movement after adoption and the portfolio of seed varieties worth exchanged. Farmers have displayed great interest in seed varieties that generate income and with the assistance of molecular tools we can develop product profiles of the most popular varieties identified with local names.
Does your research open any next steps whether by you or other researchers?
My research is a call to further investigate those 12 trending unique seed varieties. It would be beneficial to collect them all and conserve them in the IITA gene bank and see the possibilities of introgressing the gene of interest into our research collection for future genetic gains.
