The effect of growing red beauty groundnuts variety on the welfare of farmers in Atongtidi sub-county, Kwania district, Uganda

Abstract

Groundnuts are a major crop in Uganda ranking 11th in production and 6th in area harvested. The crop is both a food and cash crop. The area grew a number of traditional varieties such as (serenut2, serenut3, serenut4 and red beauty). In 2020 serere research station introduced new varieties (serenut2, serenut3, serenut4 and red beauty) with the purpose of boosting yields and productivity hoping that it would translate into increased welfare through profit and incomes. However, since the red beauty was introduced, limited knowledge has been generated to inform the policy. Therefore the main purpose of this was to assess the effect of growing red beauty groundnuts variety on farmer’s welfare in Atongtidi Sub- County, characteristics of farmers involved in groundnuts growing, estimate the performance of red beauty groundnuts and to assess the effect of growing of red beauty variety on farmers welfare A questionnaire was used to collect information from groundnuts farmers in Atongtidi Sub-County where 50 household five villages were interviewed that is Teilwa, Baro-oriang, Opok keel, Baro-Obia and Bara-dur . The results showed that 92% of the farmers grew red beauty, because of its resistance to pest and diseases. Results on how they used money showed (35.3%) of the farmers used the money for family needs such as paying health bills, buying food among other needs. (31.4%) used the money to pay school fees for their children, (21.6%) said they used it to buy animals, (7.8%) used it to build a house, while (3.9%) used the money to buy more land. This clearly shows that groundnuts improved on the standard of living since 31.4% is used for paying fees which in long run improve on standard of living.