Factors influencing adoption of drought tolerant wheat varieties in the arid and semi-arid lands of Narok and Kajiado Districts-Rift valley Province of Kenya

Abstract

Adoption of agricultural technologies by farmers is influenced by a number of factors, which include the farmer and farm attributes, technology characteristics and institutional factors. It is on this premise that drought tolerant varieties (DTV) of wheat were developed for production in Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASAL). This study was designed to assess low adoption by describing and comparing factors that have influenced adoption of DTV in the (ASALs) of Narok and Kajiado districts of Rift Valley Province-Kenya. A sample size of one hundred and eight (108) wheat farmers with seventy two (72) from Ololung‟a division of Narok district and thirty six (36) from Isinya division of Kajiado district were randomly selected by use of random numbers sampling technique. Farmers‟ perceptions of DTV of wheat, adoption levels and the influence of personal, socio-economics and institutional factors on adoption were investigated. The data was collected using a validated questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS for windows. Generally, the adoption levels were very low. Farmer perception on (DTV) was very low (0.9%) with majority of the farmers (77.8%) being uncertain of the objective of the technology and its benefits Eighty seven point nine percent (87.9%) of the farmers identified input cost as a major constraint and 85.1% lacked the relevant information. Opportunities for adoption cited by 91.6% of the respondents included the availability of the required seed. There was no statistical significant difference in perception between the farmers of Narok and Kajiado districts. However, there were significant differences in adoption levels with the average percentage for Narok mean of 1.58 being higher than Kajiado mean of 1.33 with a t-test value of -2.497; (P<0.014; α=0.05. Age, gender, and education did not have any statistical significance relationship in the adoption of DTV but farm size, land tenure system and extension services were statistically significant.