Social capital and adoption of soil fertility management technologies in Tororo district, Uganda

Abstract

Sustainable agricultural production demands that appropriate technologies are adopted to ensure adequate replenishment of soil nutrients. Thus a variety of soil fertility management technologies have been promoted to help sustain fertility levels of soils in Tororo district by INSPIRE project. However, despite these efforts, there is low adoption of these technologies. Various studies indicate that social capital is crucial for adoption of soil fertility management technologies as it provides social networks, relationships and linkages that enable poor people to cooperate, coordinate, share information and resources, and act collectively. Social capital is the ties, networks and linkages between individuals, groups and communities that bind and bridge society. A survey involving structure questionnaire, focus group discussion and participatory diagramming (network analysis) was conducted with 103 female and male farmers in two sub-counties, Usukuru and Kisoko in Tororo District to investigate the levels and dimensions of social capital and their influence on adoption of soil fertility management technologies. Logit regression model results showed that the probability of currently using legume cover crops (tithonia biomass transfer, canarvalia, tephrosia and mucuna was higher for farmers who belonged to groups compared to other community members. Social capital variables such as the extent of cooperation, the extent of information sharing, and linkages with external agencies significantly increased the probability of adoption of these legume cover crops. Farmers' groups performed better on such indicators of social capital as cooperation, extent of trust, information sharing and participation in collective activities. On the other hand, indicators of weak ties such as selfishness, individualism and conflict are higher in the general community than farmer's groups. There was higher adoption in farmers groups implying that social capital influences adoption of technologies. It is therefore recommended that strengthening local organizations and intensifying multipurpose cover crops would increase adoption of soil fertility management technologies.