Articles: Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension

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Browsing Articles: Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension by Subject "Adoption"

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    Determinants of adoption and adoption intensity of integrated soil fertility management technologies among sorghum farmers in Upper Eastern Kenya
    (UoEm, 2023-08-03) Kiprotich, Shadrack;  Mogaka, Hezron;  Ndirangu, Samuel Njiri; Nyambane Onyari, Charles
    Climate change manifestations and population pressure are some of the most critical challenges that affect agricultural productivity. Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) technologies are among the agricultural innovations that have been developed to address declining crop productivity. These technologies have been promoted across diverse areas including marginal agro- ecological zones. Despite the nobility and versatility of ISFM technologies, their adoption is still low particularly across Kenya landscapes. Consequently, there is limited knowledge explaining the adoption of these technologies especially in the dry areas. This study therefore, applied Cragg's Double Hurdle model to determine the factors affecting adoption and adoption intensity of ISFM technologies among farmers in Upper Eastern Kenya, who mainly grow sorghum both as a food and a cash crop. The results revealed that gender, dependants, farming goal for subsistence purpose (p < .01), decision on information use, farm size, extension services, research awareness, ISFM awareness and ISFM access, significantly affected household decision on adoption of ISFM technologies. On the other hand, gender of household head, farm size, main source of agricultural information and formal agricultural training had significant influence on adoption intensity of ISFM technologies. There is a thus a crucial need for integration of determinants surrounding adoption and adoption intensity of ISFM technologies in policy making and planning processes to enhance sorghum crop productivity in marginal Upper Eastern areas of the country.
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    Determinants of adoption of butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata) farming among small-holders in Suba district, Kenya
    (2012) Isaboke, Hezron N.; Mshenga, Patience; Mutai, B.K.; Saidi, M.
    Butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata) is an emerging economic crop in Kenya with ready market and high nutritional value. Despite this, its adoption as a major cash crop in Suba District has remained low. The aim of the study was to investigate the determinants of adoption and extent of adoption of butternut squash. The study area was chosen due to persistence of poverty despite the fact that the area has conditions that are favourable for the production of high value crops like butternut squash. Cross-sectional data were collected from a sample of 120 farmers selected through multi-stage sampling. The data were subjected to the Heckman two-step regression analysis to obtain the determinants of adoption and the extent of adoption. Data obtained revealed that the adopters of butternut squash were mostly the male married farmers. Results further showed that household size, land tenure, access to credit, membership to a group, market information and access to extension services significantly and positively affected the likelihood of adopting butternut squash; while age, participation in off-farm activities and distance to the market were significant with negative effect. Education, access to market information, man hours and years of experience were significantly related to adoption of the crop with positive effects, while land size was statistically significant with a negative effect. This study therefore, recommends that government and other stakeholders should formulate and implement policies related to promotion of adoption and production of butternut squash.
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    Factors Influencing Adoption of Improved Cultivars of Macadamia (Macadamia spp.) among Small-Scale Farmers in Embu County, Kenya
    (Journal of Agricultural Extension, 2021-10) Njiru, Moses Muchangi; Mogaka, Hezron Ruzungu; Ndirangu, Samuel Njiir; Gichimu, Bernard Mukiri
    The study investigated the factors influencing adoption of improved cultivars of macadamia (Macadamia spp.) among small-scale farmers in Embu County, Kenya. Data was collected from a sample of 384 small-scale farmers obtained through multistage sampling procedure in ten sub-locations. Binary Logit model was used to determine the effect of selected institutional and socio-economic factors on adoption of improved cultivars of macadamia. The results revealed that education level (wald=26.160), access to extension services (wald=6.246) and farm size (wald=4.271) had significant positive influence on adoption of improved cultivars of macadamia while age of the farmer (wald=5.235) and market distance (wald=5.519) had a negative influence on the same. There is need to encourage the youth to embrace macadamia farming and to develop smart marketing strategies to promote adoption of improved cultivars.
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    Optimizing use of integrated soil fertility management options for profitable groundnut production in Uganda
    (2014-09) Semalulu, O.; Mugonola, B.; Bonabana-Wabbi, J.; Mogaka, Hezron R.; Kayanga, S.T.
    Soil fertility decline is a major constraint to groundnut production in Uganda. Whereas options exist to address this constraint, many have not been adopted by smallholder farmers. This study was designed to demonstrate the profitability of different integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) technologies in light of smallholder farmer conditions. On-farm experiments were set up in Mbale, Tororo and Bukedea districts of Uganda, with different inorganic fertilizer and farmyard manure (FYM) combinations and four groundnut varieties: Etesot, Red beauty, Serenut 2 and Serenut 3. Results revealed that under the ISFM options considered, Serenut 3 and Red beauty were the most profitable varieties. Serenut 3 and Red beauty posted positive gross margins for all treatments including the control. However, Serenut 2 posted negative gross margins across all treatments while Etesot had negative gross margins for the control and at 4.37 kg P ha-1plus FYM. The optimum combination of fertilizer occurred at8.73 kg P ha-1 for red beauty and 4.37 kg P ha-1+ 2 t FYM for Serenut 3, suggesting that blanket recommendations of ISFM interventions on groundnuts irrespective of variety, are not advisable owing to different varietal responses to ISFM interventions, different production costs and price of the groundnuts.