Factors Affecting Adoption of Chemical Fertilizer by Smallholder Farmers in Guto Gida District, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

There is a general consensus that fertilizer is considered as one of the most important inputs for the achievement of increased agricultural production and productivity in Ethiopia particularly in the study area. Low production and productivity, which are mainly associated with limited by supply of fertilizer technology, lack of awareness about the importance of fertilizer, lack of knowledge and capacity, lack of sustain training on the adoption of agricultural technology program, inadequate cash or credit from adopting the fertilizer technology. Thus, adoption of fertilizer technology is one of the most promising ways to increase productivity and production of those small household farmers in the study area. The aim of this study was to empirically examine factors affecting adoption and intensity us of fertilizer technology in the study area. The study was based on data collected from a sample of 350 households drawn from Guto Gida District. Data analysis was done with the help of descriptive analysis and econometrics models mainly Probit and Tobit to examine factors influencing the adoption and intensity use of fertilizer in the study area, respectively. Econometric estimation results depicted that education, family size, extension contact, access to information, access to credit, farm income and off-farm activity were positively influenced the adoption of fertilizer whereas distance to market and livestocks are negatively influenced adoption of fertilizer use at standard significant levels. On the other hand, off-farm activity, access to information, landholding size and farming experience are positively affected the intensity use of fertilizer while family size and lives tocks are negatively determined the extent use of fertilizer. Therefore, policy development interventions should give emphasis to improvement of such institutional support systems like FTC (Farmers Training Center, etc) to increase adoption and intensity use of fertilizer to enhance the production and productivity of those small household farmers in the study area.

Keywords: Adoption; Fertilizer; Guto Gida District; Production; Smallholder farmers