Factors affecting adoption of upland rice in Tselemti district, northern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Rice cultivation is a new practice to Tselemti district of Tigray region, Ethiopia. Adoption of rice technologies is very slow in spite of its potential in the area. This research intended to identify factors affecting adoption of rice technologies. Methods: A multistage sampling technique was employed to select 150 sample households for this study. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were employed to see mean and percentage differences between adopter and non-adopter categories. Besides, binary logistic regression model was employed to identify the factors affecting adoption of rice technology. Results: Result of the descriptive and inferential analysis showed that adopters had better farm size, livestock holding, farm income, labor availability, education level, perception on rice yield, access to credit service, contacts with extension agents, participation in off-farm activities, participation in training and field days as compared to non-adopters. Moreover, the binary logistic regression model result showed that the level of education, perception on rice yield, access to credit service, participation in off-farm activities, participation on field day and participation in training were found to positively and significantly influence the adoption decision of rice technology at 1%, 5% and 10% significant level. However, market distance influences rice technology adoption negatively and significantly at 10% significant level. Conclusions: The variables education, rice yield, access to credit, off-farm activities, market distance, participation on field day and training determine the farmers' continued adoption decision behavior of rice technology. Therefore, the adoption of rice technology should be sustained by paying attention and moving along with those variables which influenced the adoption significantly.