Factors affecting adoption of improved groundnut seed among small scale farmers in Chipata, Zambia

Abstract

Improved seeds are one of the most important technologies for improving agriculture production and thus contributing to growth in agriculture. However adoption of improved groundnut varieties has been extremely limited in Zambia. Despite the availability of new varieties nearly the entire groundnut crop in Zambia is produced under farmer-retained seed. Information pertaining to low adoption of improved groundnut- seed has been lacking as much as development of new varieties. Indigenous groundnut seeds are late maturing and are very low yielding.The study was conducted in Chipata District in the Eastern Province since the area is an important groundnut producer in Zambia. Both secondary and primary data has been used in the report Primary data was elicited through the use of structured questionnaire and informal interviews with extension officers and Sources of secondary data were included from the ministry of agriculture.Probit regression analysis was performed using SPSS to determine the influence of farmers Age, Sex; marital status, Education, Price and household head, Profit and extension services in adoption groundnut varieties. Probit model was used in view of the discontinuous of the dependent variable that is a dummy. The coefficients of the variables give the direction of the interpretation while the marginal effects calculated at the variables means provide actual probability of being an adopter and give the economic interpretation because Probit model is non linear.The coefficients of age, household head, price of input and sex where negative. This implies that there is a negative correlation with the probability of adopting the improved seeds. Any Increase in the marginal effects will decrease the probability of adopting the technology by the calculated marginal effects. The coefficients for education, marital status, profit, extension services had a positive relationship with the adoption of the new technology. Any increase in the coefficients will increase the probability of adopting the technology by the marginal effects at their sample means. Only age, education, extension and profit where significant (t-calculated was greater than t-table) at ten percent confidence intervalBased on these findings, it is recommended that there should be an increase in the extension services provided to farmers by minimising the ratio between extension officers and farmers. Government should also improve the education sector to offer an opportunity to most rural people to have access to education, as this will improve the understanding of the importance of using improved technologies. The road network should also be improved for easy access to inputs like improved seeds by farmers.