Modeling farmer's adoption of on-farm technologies
Abstract
Soil fertility degradation has been a major issue attributed to poor crop yield among many
small-scale holders in various parts of Kenya and other nations in developing countries.
Adoption of new technologies to improve farm yields have continously been advocated
by agricultural researches. This study provide an empirical analysis on farmer, farmlevel
and service characteristics that influence farmers' adoption behavior of new on-farm
(agro forestry) technologies. The data was collected in three locations of Malindi district:
namely Ganda, Goshi and Jirole. A sample of 69 households was randomly selected
from all households (farmers) for assessment of adoption of the new on-farm technologies.
Chi-square tests were used to determine the levels of association between the above
characteristics that influence adoption of on-farm technologies and the rate of adoption.
Logistic regression model was as well used to identity the characteristics that significantly
influence adoption of technologies in the three locations. Out of the respondents, 33%
were classified as "adopters" while the rest, 67% were" non-adopters" households. The
factors that were found to significantly influence adoption were group membership, location
and food situation. Households that were activen in local community groups or
/ associations, and have sufficient food supply were more likely to adopt new on-farm technologies.
Factors that were found not to significantly influence adoption of on-farm technologies
are age of household head, head of household, labour used in the farm, occupation of the
household head, house type that the farmer lives in, credit facilities, size of the farm, and
education level of the household head.
Citation
Master of science in applied statistics social statisticsSponsorhip
University of NairobiPublisher
College of biological and physical sciences school of mathematics