| dc.description.abstract | Conservation agriculture is a set of practices widely promoted to increase productivity while conserving soil through reduced tillage, mulching and crop rotation. Conservation agriculture was introduced in the Ngata division to solve the problem of soil degradation caused by poor ploughing methods. Despite its introduction in the area, adoption of these practices remains below expectations.
The study was conducted to determine the factors which influence the small holder farmers' decision to adopt conservation Agriculture technology and examine information sources in Ngata division. Data was collected from selected smallholder farmers using a proportionate stratified random sampling. In the first stage, the Locations were stratified into five stratas based on the degree of conservation Agriculture extension efforts.
Finally, a total of 120 household heads were selected randomly using probability proportional to size of the Location. Quantitative data were collected from sampled households using structured interview schedule. The structured interview schedule was pre-tested, revised and then administered by well-trained enumerators recruited from the study area. Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviations and frequencies were used to summarize the data while t test and chi square was used to test the hypotheses ..
The results indicated that age, education, farm size, frequency of contact with extension agent, and frequency of participation in field days were found to have positive and significant influence on adoption of conservation agriculture .. Family size, sex, experience did not affect adoption. Training and demonstrations were found to be the major sources of information Based on these key findings, there is need for more extension effort in terms of extension service so as to encourage farmers to adopt conservation agriculture. Improving smallholder farmers' access to farm credit through appropriate government interventions will also help smallholder fanners ensure food security at household level. | en_US |
