Abstract:
The projected increase in population and aggregate demand for food pose a great challenge to farmers. To address this. intensification of agricultural production is necessary. Irish potato is the second staple food after maize in Kenya. However. over time, its productivity has been declining as result of many factors. A major contributor to this phenomenon is pests and disease. majority of which have well established methods of control. Among the diseases. Bacterial Wilt presents a real challenge in that there is no known chemical control method. It therefore. requires the farmer to practice Integrated Disease Management (IDM) method. Within this recommendation. planting of disease resistant varieties is an important practice as it acts as window for introduction of the other practices. Despite the existence of a well researched package and various farmers" trainings on this aspect. few farmers have fully adopted disease free Irish potato varieties in South Kinangop division. This trend. if ignored. may lead to serious decline in potato yields leading to food insecurity and low farm incomes. This study examined the factors that influence adoption of disease free Irish potato varieties at farm level in South Kjnangop division, Nyandarua district. The main focus was on household characteristics in the study area. Data from a random sample of 120 farm households in the division was used. Heckman t\\'o stage model was used to estimate the determinants of adoption due to a presumption that factors that influence the decision to adopt are different from those that affect the degree of adoption. The advantage of the approach used in this study is that it was possible to segment factors in each of the adoption processes that need to be targeted for improvement. As expected. there were different sets of factors behind the decisions to adopt and to what extent. Age. education. previous encounter with Bacterial Wilt. market price. extension contacts and labour, had significant effect on farmers‘ decision to adopt. On the other hand. the factors that were significant on farmers‘ decision as to the degree of adoption \\'e;e: age. experience in growing disease free Irish potato varieties. and extension. It is recommended that such factors be pursued in their own perspective to improve the adoption process of the disease free Irish potato varieties to combat the spread of the disease. Such effort would facilitate achievement of food security and income generation by the farmers
