Perception and determinants of agricultural technology adoption

What is it about?

Capitalizing the agriculture sector through the adoption of new agricultural technology to drive development is both critically important and urgent for enhancing aggregate economic growth and improving the welfare of millions of extremely poor people especially in developing countries like Ethiopia. The decision to adopt a given or a combination of agricultural technologies affected by household specific, socio-economic, technology and institutional factors. However, there are a limited number of studies concerning perception and determinants of agricultural technology adoption in Ethiopia. In this vein, this study tried to assess the perception and determinants of agricultural technology adoption in North Shoa Zone, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. The study helps policy makers to come up with more plausible policy options leading to improvement in agricultural technology adoption among rural households.

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Why is it important?

A number of studies has been conducted concerning the perception and determinants of agricultural technology adoption in Ethiopia for example, (Feyisa, 2020; Milkias & Abdulahi, 2018; Challa & Tilahun, 2014; Gebru, 2006). The above studies heavily rely in showing a single agricultural technology adoption decision and fails to account complementarity of agricultural technology adoption decision in establishing a causal effect relationship. According to (Abay, Berhane, Taffesse, Koru, & Abay, 2016) such kind of studies are often prone to methodological challenges related to the nature of adoption decisions, and hence may produce biased estimates. Concerning the perception and determinants of agricultural technology adoption a number studies were undertaken. In this regard, a number of factors were identified as critical factors affecting the decision to adopt agricultural technology in many studies and showed inconsistent result. For instance, a number of studies reported that the decision to adopt a certain agricultural technology is highly likely among male headed rural households as compared to their female counterpart (Launio, Luis, & Angeles, 2018; Amare & Simane, 2017; Solomon, Tessema, & Bekele, 2014). On the contrary, the study by (Simtowe, Asfaw, & Abate, 2016) showed the likelihood of adopting at least one variety of Psigeonpea variety diminishes with being a male farmer in Malawi. On the other hand, other group of studies found that sex of the household head was not statistically significant in influencing the decision to adopt agricultural technology (Feyisa, 2020; Ponguane & Mucavele, 2018; Challa & Tilahun, 2014; Simtowe, et al., 2011; Gebru, 2006). The same is true for other determinants of agricultural technology adoption. Therefore, existence of inconsistent results on the determinants of agricultural technology adoption among rural households calls the need for further study on the isssue in order to come up with a better policy option targeting to improve the decision to adopt new agricultural technology among rural households.

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