Factors influencing the adoption of modern agricultural technologies by small scale farmers: the case of thika east sub-county, kenya

Abstract

Agricultural productivity in Kenya can only be enhanced through the adoption of modern agricultural technologies by the farmers the aim of the study was to find out the factors influencing the adoption of modern agricultural technologies by small scale farmers. The study was guided by the following specific objectives; to establish the influence of access to resources on the adoption of modern agricultural technologies by small scale farmers, to determine the influence of access to extension services on the adoption of modern Agricultural technologies by small scale farmers, to determine the influence of access to modern agricultural technologies‟ information on the adoption of modern agricultural technologies by small scale farmers and to establish the influence of access to agricultural research activities on the adoption of modern agricultural technologies by small scale farmers. Descriptive survey was employed as the research design. The study sampled a total of 127 small scale farmers from a target population of 200 small scale farmers the sample was drawn from three villages within Thika East Sub-county namely; Ithanga, Magogoni and Nanga sampled using simple random sampling technique. The study also sought the opinion of 8 extension officers and 10 KARI Thika research scientists. Data was collected using questionnaires and as the main primary data collection tools distributed to all the 144 respondents. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Scientists version 22.0. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were used to organize and simplify the collected data. Karl Pearson product moment correlation analysis was also employed to determine the direction and strength of relationship between some variables of interest. The results obtained showed that farmers have a low access to resources; credit facilities at 9%, agricultural inputs, water, equipments and machineries at 11% because of the high input prices, low government support and inadequate access to financial resources by farmers also 94% of the farmers practice their agricultural activities on land of size less than 5 acres. A strong positive correlation of a correlation coefficient of 0.6 was also obtained between the levels of the farmers‟ average monthly income and access to agricultural input and equipments. Access to extension services and agricultural research centers and their research products by farmers is also low within the sub-county with only 26.4% and 18.2% of responding small scale farmers agreeing to have accessed extension services and agricultural research centers and their products in that order. Most respondents agreed that small scale farmers access information on modern agricultural technologies for instance, 90% of the small scale farmers agreed to have accessed information on modern agricultural technologies through; electronic and print media, extension officers and other farmers with the level of education playing a critical role in selection of the information sources the farmer will use to obtain agricultural information. From the findings it was concluded that low access to resources, extension services and agricultural research centers and their research products negatively influences the adoption of modern agricultural technologies within Thika East sub-county. Thus, it was recommended that, the government should employ more extension staff and deploy them to more decentralized levels like sub- locations and villages so that contact between the farmers and the extension officers is improved the government should also lower the interest rates charged on loan facilities granted to small scale farmers so as to make it easier for them to access credit facilities from the major lending financial institutions. Further the government should subsidize the prices of inputs, equipments and machinery required for the adoption of modern agricultural technologies to make them more affordable to the farmers. Further the government should facilitate the decentralization of agricultural research activities by supporting the main research centers to establish sub-centers into the rural areas in Kenya to make them more accessible to the rural farmers.