Farm-level adoption of sorghum technologies in Tigray, Ethiopia

Curtailing the effect of Striga weed, improving moisture availability and increasing soil fertility are essential strategies to increase the productivity of agriculture in the sorghum producing semi-arid areas of Ethiopia. The adoption of Striga resistant sorghum varieties and inorganic fertilizer on small subsistence farms in Tigray, Ethiopia was analyzed to identify the factors determining farmers’ adoption decisions. Separate Tobit regression models were estimated on survey data of a random sample of 90 farm households conducted in 2001. Results indicate that access to information, soil type, and farmers’ perceptions of technology characteristics and rainfall risk were the factors associated with the adoption of the new sorghum cultivars. In contrast, availability of adult family labour, farm size, manure use, and soil type were the major determinants of the adoption of inorganic fertilizers. Farm size is negatively related to fertilizer adoption as small farms are more pressured to adopt inorganic fertilizer and intensive production techniques. Instead of the over emphasis of on short cycle varieties as a means of coping with drought and Striga, breeders need to generate intermediate and longer season Striga resistant cultivars to increase productivity during moderate and good rainfall years. Varieties combining the desirable characteristics of higher grain and biomass yields of the traditional cultivars with Striga resistance are expected to be more successfully adopted.