Socio-Economic Factors Influencing the Adoption of SRI among Smallholder Rice Irrigation Farmers in Morogoro Region, Tanzania

Abstract

This study discusses the factors that influence the adoption of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) among smallholder farmers in the  Morogoro region, of Tanzania. The overall objective of this study was to assess social economic factors affecting the adoption of SRI  among smallholder farmers in Tanzania. Primary data were collected by using a questionnaire administered to farmers and a checklist  for the key informants. The sample size chosen from a population of rice farmers practising in irrigation areas around Morogoro was 384  farmers. Moreover, the multistage sampling distribution was used in this study. Secondary data were collected from various books and journals from both the electronic library and Sokoine National Agricultural Library (SNAL). The logistic regression model was used in the  analysis of this study: It was concluded that households accessing more extension services are more likely to participate in SRI than  households with no or little extension service. The main barrier to the original use of SRI methods was the high labour demand, notably  for weeding, which increased the cost of production. It would be beneficial to create various power-operated mechanical weeder models  that are suited to the nation's various soil types. Incentives should be used to promote the production of mechanical weeder machines, which some farmers have been at the forefront of. A mechanized weeder reduces herbicide-related environmental damage while  addressing the issues of labour scarcity and declining income per acre. Herbicides often need less labour input and have proved  successful when there is a labour shortage for weeding during crucial times. It is also recommended that further research be conducted  on SRI in different regions of Tanzania to broaden knowledge and to discover new techniques which will give more output by using SRI  based on locality.