Browsing by Author "Okori, P."

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    Farmers’ Perceptions On Maize Ear Rots And The Prospects For Breeding Farmer Preferred Varieties In Uganda
    (In Proceedings of The Second RUFORUM Biennial Meeting, 2010) Tembo, L.; Okori, P.; Asea, G.; Gibson, P.
    Maize ear rots are a major constraint to maize production globally, and yield loses of up to 70% have been reported in Uganda. Developing varieties resistant to ear rots is a practical strategy that provides better insurance for the small scale farmers. To enhance the adoption of varieties, farmers’ perceptions should be included early in the breeding programme. In this study a survey was done in four districts of Uganda to examine farmers’ perception on ear rots and their views on agronomic desirable traits. High yield and earliness were the most preferred traits by the farmers.
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    Farmers’ preferences for maize attributes in eastern and Western Uganda
    (African Journals Online (AJOL), 2017-06-02) Ajambo, R.; Elepu, G.; Bashaasha, B.; Okori, P.
    Maize (Zea mays L.) is an important staple food crop in Uganda and is emerging as a cash crop for smallholder farmers. Maize has, therefore, been prioritised by the Government of Uganda for continuous improvement through the national agricultural research system, resulting in the release of several improved varieties. However, adoption rates of the improved varieties among farmers remains low possibly due to non-inclusion of important non-yield productive and consumptive attributes in the new maize varieties. This study was conducted to identify and economically evaluate non-yield productive and consumptive attributes that are important to farmers and their influence on the price farmers are willing to pay for seed of varieties that embody those attributes. A survey of 325 randomly selected farmers was conducted in Iganga and Masindi districts in Uganda to identify productive and consumptive attributes they preferred when purchasing seed. Results showed that maize farmers were willing to pay more for seed of short-medium height, short-medium maturity period, and high yielding maize varieties. However, the price farmers were willing to pay for maize seed not only depended on quality attributes, but also on seed market prices and land resource endowment. These results have important implications for policy makers to streamline production, multiplication and distribution of high quality maize seeds in Uganda.
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    Genetic characterisation of Ugandan strains of Colletotrichum sublineolum using ISSR makers
    (African Journals Online (AJOL), 2013) Sserumaga, J.P.; Biruma, M.; Akwero, A.; Okori, P.; Edema R.
    Colletotrichum sublineolum, the causal agent of sorghum anthracnose, presents high variability, genetic instability and host specialisation, hence rapidly breaking down resistance. In Uganda, no population studies of Colletotrichum sublineolum have been reported hence there is limited information on the nature of epidemics and pathogen. The present study aims at investigating the genetic diversity within 124 Colletotrichum sublineolum isolates from Uganda. The intersimple sequence repeats (ISSR) produced 37 polymorphic loci and neighbor-joining analysis revealed two major groups. There were no major groups among all isolates in studies. Analysis of molecular variation (AMOVA) based on 7 agro-ecologies of Uganda revealed the presence of a population structure, (FFST = 0.08 P = 0.05) leading to acceptance of null hypothesis stating a presence of population differentiation between the agro-ecologies in Uganda. Gene flow between agro-ecologies was 5.75 calculated from ÔFST. The results of the AMOVA analysis revealed the allelic variation (92.5%) was shared between populations. Average gene diversity over all loci ranged from 0.192 to 0.335 showing high diversity within population rather than between populations. The numbers of polymorphic loci were similar for the population studied.