Adoption of Agricultural Technology Packages in Barley Based Farming System of Ethiopia

Abstract Despite the high production potential and the economic importance of the crop, adoption, and diffusion of barley technologies are constrained by various factors. To this end, this study aimed at identifying determinants of adoption of agricultural technologies in the barley-based farming system of Ethiopia, with the specific objectives of identifying factors affecting Agricultural technology package choice and assessing the interdependency between the technologies. The study used data from the Ethiopian socioeconomic survey. The descriptive and econometric analytical tools were applied. The descriptive result of the study identified that variables like education, family size, credit access, farm size, farm income, and age of the farmer play significant roles, across barley technologies. The results show that about 66.96%, 58.59%, 75.18%, 65.17%, and 75.99% of sample households were adopted an improved variety of barley, urea, dap, chemicals, manure, and crop rotation respectively. All the barley production technologies were complementary (i.e. urea, improved variety, dap, chemicals, manure, and crop rotation). Multivariate probit model results showed that Age of household head, Soil fertility, farm size, Training, and transportation cost affect the adoption of barley technologies negatively and significantly. Sex of household head, education level of household head, Farm income, tropical livestock unit, and access to credit affect the adoption of barley technologies positively and significantly. Smallholder farmers were more likely to succeed than fail in jointly adopting barley technologies. Consequently, government policy and other concerned parties should emphasize the improvement of the institutional support system and decrease gender disparities in access to such institutions.