Factors influencing adoption of improved dairy farming technologies among smallholder farmers in Ekerenyo division, Nyamira County

Abstract

Global food security is high on the development agenda now than any other time in history because of the continuing demand to feed an exploded population. The contribution of livestock and especially dairy to this course is enormous and cannot be overemphasized. The study examined factors influencing adoption of improved dairy farming technologies among smallholder farmers in Ekerenyo Division of Nyamira County. The objectives of the study were threefold; to establish how socio-economic status of farmers determined adoption; to establish the extent to which extension education influences adoption and lastly to determine how perceived technology attributes influence adoption of dairy technologies. The study employed a descriptive survey design involving quantitative data. The target population was small scale dairy farmers. The sample size was 199 drawn from individual farmers, farmers groups and key individuals. This sample was identified using stratified and purposive sampling procedure. Data was analyzed using descriptive and chi-square statistical techniques using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 and Microsoft Excel. Adoption of improved dairy farming technologies was classified as low, medium and high based on adoption level in the following order (low to highest); on-farm formulation (7.5%) feed conservation, (24.1%) AI, (37.7%) legume establishment (54.3%) proper housing (63.3%) feed supplementation (65.3%) and tumbukiza establishment (63.3%) and proper tick spraying (95%). The level of technology adoption by smallholder farmers was still unsatisfactory and is highly dependent on family size (p≤0.05), monthly income of the household head (p≤0.01), herd size (p≤0.01), farmer based social networks (p≤0.05), mass media programme (p≤0.01), farm distance from livestock office (p≤0.01) and attendance of various extension programme (p≤0.05). The findings imply that to increase adoption efforts should be made to categorize smallholder dairy farmers accordingly and deliberate efforts should be made to tailor make technologies according to conditions of the farmers and encourage specialization by farmers and use innovative pluralistic approaches for extension dissemination and mass media.