DETERMINANTS OF ADOPTION OF IMPROVED WHEAT TECHNOLOGY: IN CASE OF GOZZAMEN DISTRICT, EAST GOJJAM IN AMHARA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The aims of this study: identify factors influencing adoption of wheat technologies at household level; large numbers of technologies have been generated over the last many years. However, the adoption of these technologies by small holder farmers was limited. The adoption of new technology, under varying contextual setting, is influenced by many socio-economic, institutional and demographic factors of the farm households. So it is vital to be aware and there is a need to understand the contextual factors affecting the adoption of new technologies in order to generate and disseminate appropriate technologies to farmer. For this research multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select the sample respondents. First, Amhara Regional state was purposively selected. At the second stage, Gozamen district was purposively selected based on wheat production potential. At the third stage three Kebele were randomly selected among wheat growers using random sampling method. Finally, 120 sample respondents were selected from the sampling frame based on probability proportional to size (PPS) random sampling method. A semi-structured questionnaire based interview, participatory rural appraisal (PRA), farm inspection, record analysis, journals and different articles were carried out to collect cross sectional data. Of the total samples were taken 49% were technology adopters and 51% were non-adopters. SPSS statistical computer software program were used to analyze the collected data. The primary data generated on the determinants of improved wheat technology adoption were subjected to an econometric (regression) analysis besides this descriptive statistics were used as analytical tool. The result of the model revealed that the explanatory variables education, farm size, total active household labor in man equivalent, crop income, input availability, contact extension agent, off farm, were statistically significant and positively influence adoption of improved wheat technology, whereas age and market distance were found to have a significant and negative influence on the adoption decision of improved wheat technology. The result from this survey suggests that implementation of well-established extension package, formation of compatible rural credit institutions, improvement of infrastructure and collective action of farmers, researchers, development agent, and entire stakeholders are helpful.