Assessment of adoption of improved wheat production technology in Nawalparasi (West) district, Nepal

Abstract

The study was conducted in Sunwal Municipality, Ramgram Municipality, Pahalinandan Rural municipality, and Sarahwal Rural Municipality of Nawalparasi (west) district of Nepal in order to evaluate the adoption rate of improved wheat production technology. A total of 85 households were selected using the simple random sampling method. The collected data were processed, tabulated, and analyzed by using SPSS and Ms-Excel. Mean and standard deviation was to interpret descriptive data. A probit regression model was used to analyze the effect of different independent variables on the decision to adopt improved wheat production technology. Indexing was used to construct an index for ranking the problems faced by the farmers during the production process. From the study, it was found that the adopter of the recommended variety was 82.4%. The adopter of the recommended seed rate was 50.6%. Similarly, the adopter of the recommended method of sowing was 8.2% and the irrigation rate was 44.7%. The adopter of the recommended weeding practices was 43.5%, disease control was 3.5% and insect-pest control was 43.5%. The characteristics of respondents, i.e., education, farm size, farmers group membership, and training had a significant association with the adoption of improved wheat production technology. The empirical results of the probit regression model revealed that education, family size, farm size, farmers’ group membership, and training had a significant and positive association with the adoption of improved wheat production technologies. Wheat production was greatly constrained by lack of agricultural machines, lack of proper irrigation, poor availability of fertilizers, disease and insect-pest prevalence, and lack of quality improved seeds.