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The sustainability of decentralized seed producers established to enhance farmers’ access to seed of newly introduced biofortified crops is a major challenge. Understanding what motivates the multipliers of clonally propagated crops to engage in seed multiplication is critical for enhancing access to improved seed varieties. The purpose of this paper is to examine the structure and content of mental models associated with the decision to engage in biofortified sweetpotato vine multiplication as a business.

The study focused on decentralized vine multipliers from Kenya and Ethiopia. These were stratified by orientation toward nutrition or commercial value addition. A total of 45 multipliers were interviewed. Means-end chain (MEC) analysis combined with laddering technique was used to generate mental constructs multipliers relate with the decision to engage in biofortified sweetpotato vine multiplication.

The structure and content of mental models of biofortified sweetpotato vine multipliers supporting nutrition-focused interventions and those supporting commercial value-addition sweetpotato interventions are different. Nutrition-focused multipliers are driven by the benefits of good health, while commercial value-addition interventions are driven by the benefit of making “more money.” The content and structure of mental models are also country/region specific.

This study has demonstrated that decision to engage in community seed production business is driven not only by the desire to make profits but, equally importantly, by personal and societal (social) factors. It has also discussed the limitations of current analysis and future research areas.

This study is the first to apply MES analysis to assess how decision to invest in seed multiplication business is affected farmers’ personal values and other psychosocial factors.

Beer-bananas in Central Uganda are important for smallholder farmers’ livelihoods, especially for those that process the banana into beer and spirits. The purpose of this paper is to understand how actors in the beer-banana value chain are affected and how they are managing disease has become an important issue since the outbreak of the bacterial banana disease Xanthomonas Wilt.

The authors conducted an exploratory study focusing on producers of beer-bananas; brewers and non-brewers, and on retailers in Central Uganda and in Kampala. The authors conducted surveys with these value chain actors and we used baseline data, collected through a household survey in the project sites.

Results showed that Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) has drastically reduced productivity of beer-banana systems, resulting in reduced sales volumes of beer-bananas and processed products and consequently reduced incomes. Application of disease control measures was generally higher among those farmers that brew.

This being an exploratory study, the samples for the different value chain actors were rather small. Future research should address: product quality and opportunities for differentiation; effects of beer-banana processing on rural communities; adoption of BXW control measures.

Beer-bananas are often neglected in research; this paper shows that is unfounded since beer-banana production and processing are important for many people’s livelihood. More insight into what motivates farmers to control the disease is essential to protect these people’s livelihoods.