ORIGINAL ARTICLE Farmers’ preferences for attributes of rice varieties in Sierra Leone Shaosheng Jin 1 & Bashiru Mansaray 2,3 & Xin Jin 1 & Haoyang Li 4,5 Received: 11 September 2019 /Accepted: 20 February 2020 # International Society for Plant Pathology and Springer Nature B.V. 2020 Abstract Farmers’ preferences and needs are crucial in improving the development of rice varieties to increase rice production and improve food security. However, research on farmers’ preferences for crop attributes is scarce in Africa. This study contributes to bridging this gap by focusing on farmers’ preferences for rice variety attributes based on a nationwide survey conducted in Sierra Leone. Results from a Best-Worst Scaling analysis revealed that potential yield, maturity, pest and disease resistance, and seed longevity, were the most preferred attributes of a rice variety. The least preferred attributes were ease of threshing, fertiliser response, and shattering. After applying a latent class model, farmers were found to align with six distinct classes: “majority farmers”, “price sensitive”, “conservationists”, “sustainable farmers”, “output maximisers”, and “subsistence”. These classes showed differences in terms of the farmers’ characteristics (e.g. sex, education, income, farm farming experience, and farmland size) and in the importance given to extrinsic factors (e.g. access to market, extension services, and membership in farmers’ organisations). Among these classes, the “majority farmers” were more likely to have relatively more farmland, easier access to other farm resources (e.g., chemical fertilisers and market information) and are more likely to prefer potential yield. The “price sensitive” class placed high importance on seed price and consisted of farmers who were low income, and had better access to extension services and membership to farming organisations. Furthermore, preferences were distinct for “conservationists” who have environmental and sustenance concerns. Keywords Rice variety attributes . Farmers preferences . Best-worst scaling . Latent class model . Sierra Leone 1 Introduction For decades, agricultural systems in Africa have experienced growing challenges in response to increasing food demand, driven by a rapidly growing population and low food produc- tion (Onyango 2014; Schut et al. 2016; Valin et al. 2014). Low food production results from numerous factors, including de- clining soil fertility (Coulibaly et al. 2017), and continuous cropping systems (Adesina and Baidu-Forson 1995), as well as constraints in promoting technological change (Mgumia et al. 2015). Given the breadth of the challenge, scientists suggest that the implementation of improved agricultural technol- ogies (such as improved rice varieties) are crucial in stim- ulating increased food production and ensuring food and economic security in Africa (Asfaw et al. 2016; Ghimire et al. 2015a, 2015b). Rice carries special significance as an essential staple and is one of the largest sources of food energy in Sub-Saharan Africa (Arouna et al. 2017; Naseem et al. 2013; Seck et al. 2010). Naseem et al. ( 2013) discussed the trend of demand for rice in Africa; on aver- age, there was a 16.2% increase of total annual rice con- sumption from 16.89 million tonnes in 2001–2007 to 20.33 million tonnes in 2008–2010. Likewise, there was a 21.8% increase from 2008 to 2010 to 26 million tonnes in 2014 Shaosheng Jin and Bashiru Mansaray contributed equally to this work. * Xin Jin xinj@zju.edu.cn 1 China Academy for Rural Development (CARD), Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China 2 School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China 3 Department of Agricultural Economics, School of Social Sciences, Njala University, Private Mail Bag, Freetown, Sierra Leone 4 Institute for Advanced Research, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai 200433, China 5 Key Laboratory of Mathematical Economics (SUFE), Ministry of Education, Shanghai 200433, China Food Security https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-020-01019-w