The NGO-led intervention that followed the state intervention did not involve
farmers in variety selection either. But it increased the number of varieties made
available to farmers. Our findings showed that 38% of these varieties successfully
entered the informal seed system and were cultivated by 7% of the rice farming
households a decade later. Those varieties were likely the most suitable among the
distributed improved varieties, suggesting that the dissemination of a larger number
of varieties, when farmers are not involved in selection processes, increases chance of
adoption. Since our surveys covered only Lower Guinea, different figures may emerge
for other regions.