Factors influencing technology adoption among small holder dairy farmers in Buikwe district

Abstract

Low technology uptake is a problem in Buikwe District among smallholder dairy farmers who comprise of over 70% of dairy farmers in the district. The main objective of the study was to determine commonly used technologies among smallholder dairy farmers and factors influencing their adoption. A cross sectional study was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Qualitative methods included: focus group discussions and key informants. Quantitative methods involved use of 271 questionnaires which were administered to the farmers to determine technologies and factors that influence their adoption. It captured data on socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, factors that influence adoption and commonly used technologies. Logistic regression was used to measure associations of factors influencing adoption with commonly used technologies. Odds Ratios and P-values were used to interpret results and values with p-value less than 0.05 were taken to be significant. The findings showed that five technologies were commonly used and they included: Keeping records 46.8%, Selection of breeding animals 41.7%, use of concentrates 27.8%, construction of standard diary structures 24.8%, Silage and hay making 16.2%. It was noted that capital intensive technologies were adopted least. Six major factors were found to significantly affect technology adoption among small holder dairy farmers in Buikwe district and they included: Breed of dairy animal (58.1%), education level (20%), sex of household head (14%), age (9.2%), main source of income (salary) (8.0%) and status of land ownership (4.3%), There is for sensitization of stakeholders need for startup fund from government so farmers can purchase the inputs for capital intensive technologies whose uptake was found to be generally low in the district.