Socio-Economic Factors Influencing Adoption of Improved Technologies for Maize Farming in Karatu District, Tanzania
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The University of Dodoma University of Dodoma Institutional Repository http://repository.udom.ac.tz Social Sciences Master Dissertations 2015 Socio-economic Factors Influencing Adoption of Improved Technologies for Maize Farming in Karatu District, Tanzania Shauri, Francis J. The University of Dodoma Shauri, F. J. (2015). Socio-economic Factors Influencing Adoption of Improved Technologies for Maize Farming in Karatu District, Tanzania (Masters dissertation). The University of Dodoma. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12661/1878 Downloaded from UDOM Institutional Repository at The University of Dodoma, an open access institutional repository. SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS INFLUENCING ADOPTION OF IMPROVED TECHNOLOGIES FOR MAIZE FARMING IN KARATU DISTRICT, TANZANIA By Shauri Francis J. A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Development Studies of the University of Dodoma The University of Dodoma October, 2015 CERTIFICATION The Undersigned confirm that has read and hereby recommend for acceptance by the University of Dodoma a dissertation entitled “Socio-economic Factors Influencing Adoption of Improved Technologies for Maize Farming in Karatu District, Tanzania” in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Development Studies of the University of Dodoma. ……………………………… Prof. Albino John Mkavindanda Tenge (Supervisor) Date…………………………………. i DECLARATION AND COPYRIGHT I, Francis J. Shauri declare that this dissertation is my own original work and that it has not been presented and will not be presented to any other University for a similar or any other degree award. Signature…………………………… Not part of this dissertation may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the author or the University of Dodoma ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my closely beloved wife Alice Ruhakwa for supporting me both materially and morally during my studies at the University of Dodoma. This dedication is also to my children Eliza and Hyasinta for being patient during my absence at home for studies. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Almighty God who has been keeping me alive during all time of conducting my studies. A lot of people have played part to the accomplishment of this study in a number of ways. First of all, I would like to give many thanks to those who helped me during preparation of this dissertation. It would have been difficult if not their moral, guidance and advices. I would like to thank them all. I am sincerely grateful to my supervisor Prof Albino John Mkavindanda Tenge for his scholarly advice and assistance from the beginning to the end of this work. I learned a lot from him on how to conduct a research. Honestly my heartfelt thanks are due to my lovely wife Alice Ruhakwa for her patience, tolerance, material and moral support. Special appreciation goes to all academic staffs at the Department of Development Studies and other collaborative departments at the University of Dodoma (UDOM) for their efforts during my coursework. In fact their academic contribution has laid a foundation on me to come up with this kind of work. I would like to express my special gratitude to Dr. Victor George, the head of Department of Development Studies at UDOM, for his kindly guidance and counseling at all-time whenever I approached him for this matter. Gladly I wish to express my thanks to my colleagues for their cooperation especially Abubakar Nur who occasionally provided me with a venue at which I could sit and do my work whenever electricity was cut off at the University. In one way or another they have been so helpful to me during the whole process of preparation to accomplishment of this work. iv Lastly but not least, I am happy to express my appreciation to the local communities (farmers and key informants) who devoted their time in providing responses for this research. Their responses gave me some insights to come up with findings of this study. If not their accessibility this work would not have been successful. v ABSTRACT This study attempted to assess socio-economic factors influencing adoption of improved technologies for maize farming in Karatu District. Specifically the study identified the types of maize production technologies used in Karatu District; analyzed socio-economic characteristics of maize farmers in Karatu District and identified socio-economic factors for adoption of maize production technologies in Karatu District. The study employed both probability and non-probability sampling methods to select a sample of 100 heads of households and 17 key informants as respondents. Data was collected using interviews, observations, Focused Group Discussion and secondary data reviews. Questionnaires and checklists were used as tools to collect data from the heads of households and key informants respectively. Data collected was descriptively analyzed using means and percentages with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Results were cross tabulated to compare between and within the groups. Results indicate that the major types of technologies and proportion of users include improved seeds (87.6%), oxen plough (81.6%), insecticides (76.3%) and tractors (63.3%). Least used technologies are fertilizers (14.4%) and power tiller (18.4%).Results revealed that majority of maize farmers in Karatu district are male (63.0%), married (89.0%), with primary school education (50%) and age of 41-50 years. Socio-economic factors that influence adoption of improved technologies are educational level, marital status, age, sex and farm size. Other factors include location, place of birth, market situation, training and availability of extension services. Options to increase adoption included awareness creation on improved technology practices, provision of training and extension services. Finally the study concluded and recommend to the district authority to prepare incentive policies motivating farmers for adoption of improved vi technologies such as subsidizing distribution of chemical fertilizer to farmers at village agricultural offices in every planting season. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATION .................................................................................................................. I DECLARATION AND COPYRIGHT ............................................................................... II DEDICATION ...................................................................................................................... III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................. IV ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... VI TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. VIII LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ XIII LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................................... XV LIST OF ABREVIATION ............................................................................................... XVI CHAPTER ONE .................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background Information .................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................. 2 1.3 Research Objectives ........................................................................................................... 4 1.3.1 General Objective............................................................................................................ 4 1.3.2 Specific Objectives.......................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Research Questions ............................................................................................................ 4 1.5 Significance of the study .................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER TWO ................................................................................................................... 5 LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Definition of Key Terms .................................................................................................... 5 2.1.1 Technology ...................................................................................................................... 5 2.1.2 Adoption of Technology ................................................................................................ 5 2.2 Theoretical Literature Review............................................................................................ 5 viii 2.2.1 Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Theory ........................................................................... 5 2.2.2 Modeling Diffusion Theory ...........................................................................................