Farmers’ Knowledge on Macadamia Genetic Diversity in Kenya as a Means for in situ Conservation

Abstract

Macadamia, a member of the family Proteaceae, is widely grown in Kenya as alternative cash cropto tea and coffee, but varieties adapted to different agro-ecological zones are still lacking. Macadamiabreeders require high genetic diversity to select and recombine favorable traits through cross-breedingand hence the need for in situ conservation of existing germplasm. A survey was done to assess thevariability that exists in farmers’ field and how well they can differentiate between differentmacadamia types and to locate valuable germplasm for further evaluation and conservation. A total of 185 farmers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire and descriptive statistics was doneusing statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The survey results indicated that only 10.3% of therespondents could differentiate Macadamia types, by species, among them only 2.8% could do so byvarieties, indicating a limited knowledge on Macadamia morphology. Nut characteristics (97.3%)followed by leaf characteristics (88.0%) and yield (88.0%) were the morphological markers mostly used by farmers. Detailed morphological and molecular characterization of some selected promising accessions is ongoing. Hence, there is a need for farmers’ training on morphological markers that could be used to select valuable Macadamiagermplasm for conservation in situ.