Determinants of Improved Forage Legume Adoption: the Case of Kedida Gamela District, Kembata Tembaro Zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia.

Abstract

In Ethiopia the livestock sub-sector has significant contributions to the national income and the livelihoods of households. As the sector is facing many challenges, adoption of improved forage technologies is one of the most promising ways to reduce feed shortage in Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to analyze the determinants of improved forage legume adoption in Kedida Gamela District, Kembata Tembaro Zone of SNNPR. A two stage sampling procedure were employed to select 186 sample households. Primary and secondary data were collected from the district and three purposively selected kebeles Data were collected using structured interview schedule, focus group discussion and personal observation. Both descriptive and inferential data analysis methods were applied using SPSS v20. The result of the study indicated that 27.4% and 72.6% were found to be adopters and Non- adopters respectively. The results of land coverage reveals that the proportion of land for improved forage legume to total forage land was only 12.7%. The results of descriptive statistics also indicate as sex, education, grazing land size, livestock owned, participation in off-farm activities, distance from nearest market center, access to credit servise and extension agent contact were found to have significant influence on household adoption of improved forage legume at the different probability level. The results of binary logistic regression indicated as extension agent contact, access to credit service, participation in off-farm activities, distance from nearest market center, livestock owned, sex, grazing land size were found to have significantly determining household adoption of improved forage legume production. Shortage of land, lack of inputs, lack of extension service were major constraints affected adoption of improved forage legume. In general adopter households own more livestock units, have a relatively large grazing land size, have better access to credit, have contact with extension agents, most of them involved in off-farm activities and have more access to market to purchase inputs & sale their produce than Non-adopter households. Therefore government development interventions should give emphasis to improvement of such institutional support systems to increase adoption and productivity of improved forage legume.