ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING ADOPTION OF SOYBEAN PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY IN PAWE DISTRICT, METEKEL ZONE OF BENSHANGUL GUMUZ REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Soybean is a legume crop grown in the tropical, subtropical, and temperate climates which is used for food and animal feed. However, the production and productivity of soybean is low and improvement in production and productivity depends on the extent to which a household has applied the recommended production technologies. The objectives of this study were: to assess the level of adoption of improved soybean production technology and to identify the major factors affecting adoption of improved soybean production technology. Multi stage sampling procedure was followed to select 123 households for the study. In this study, descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used to describe household characteristics and adoption of the technologies among households. Tobit model was used in order to identify the determinants of adoption of the improved soybean production technologies. The results of descriptive statistics showed that a total of hundred (77%) of the respondents have adopted the recommended soybean production technologies. The result of the econometric model indicated that the age of the households, the land holding, household size, the number of livestock owned and the extension contact are important variables influencing the level of adoption of soybean technologies. Thus it is recommended that policy options be implemented among soybean producers addressing the disparity in the level of adoption of the technologies. In so doing, it would be worthwhile to take into consideration the personal characteristics, resource ownership and technical capacity of the farmers as drivers of soybean technology adoption