The Determinants of Adoption of Improved Agricultural Inputs by Small Holder Farmers: A Study in Estie Woreda, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

Despite the fact that the use of improved agricultural input increase productivity of smallholders’ farmers, most farmers continued with traditional way of farming and the rate of adoption of improved input is too low. It is believed that many socio-economic, institutional and technology related factors have an impact on improved technology adoption. Hence, the interest of this study is to identify factors affecting adoption of improved agricultural input. The study used primary data collected from sample small scale farmers
selected by multistage sampling method. Binary logit model was employed to analyze the data. The result of the study shows that age of the household head, family size, contact to extension agent and membership of framers association have positive and significant effect at 1 percent level. Whereas, land size and access to credit have positive significant effect at 5 percent level of significance. Based on the finding, the study recommends the government to increase access to credit and provide information to farmers about the available improved agricultural inputs and their impact on productivity through extension agents and farmers association.