End-user preferences to enhance prospects for varietal acceptance and adoption in potato breeding in Uganda

Background Potato varieties have diverse biophysical characteristics, so it is important for breeders to have the capacity to choose those that meet the preferences of end users, such as mealiness, firmness, potato taste; among others. Combining user preferences with descriptive information on the sensory characteristics of boiled potatoes can contribute to the improvement of consumer-driven varieties. This study aims to factor in the preferences of end users to improve the prospects for varietal acceptance, adoption, and discrimination of genotypes in potato breeding. Results The priority quality traits of the boiled potatoes were determined by evaluating gender and livelihood using the G+ tool. Potato genotypes were discriminated by penetration and the procedure was repeatable between cooking replicates at 40 min of cooking. Instrument-based texture parameters, such as penetration peak force (hardness/firmness) and area (area under curve representing energy needed to penetrate) of boiled potato tubers, are significantly associated with sensory attributes such as fracturability and hardness in mouth. An attempt to discriminate genotypes using NIRS revealed that the average performances observed of the calibration for yellow color (r2 = 0.70), homogeneity of color (r2 = 0.48), moisture in mass (r2 = 0.40) as well as uniformity of texture (r2 = 0.56), suggested that these models could be used for initial breeding screening purposes. Conclusions The acceptance traits of the boiled potato can be integrated in the potato breeding program/product profile. NIRS shows great potential to predict potato color. The NIRS models are also promising for predicting some texture attributes