Dennis Katuuramu (PhD student, Michigan State University) with a farmer group in Kamuli, Uganda evaluating a dry bean participatory trial.

A subset of the Andean Diversity Panel (ADP) comprised of 23 genotypes was screened on-farm across three districts in Uganda in 2015. The genotypes represent various market classes and were selected for faster cooking times and superior nutritional quality profiles. A participatory variety selection approach was used where the farmers belonging to nine farmer groups participated in the collection of both qualitative data (preference scores) and quantitative data (disease reactions, plant architecture, and seed yield). Farmers also rated seed quality preferences after harvest. In general, farmers preferred high yielding early maturing lines that exhibited tolerance to too little and/or too much water. A small seeded red mottled variety (Chijar) from Puerto Rico was consistently the most productive across all the agro-ecological zones used in the study.