Abstract:
In developing countries like Tanzania, Draught Animal Power (DAP) technology could be
appropriate technology which many farmers can afford as a first step from using a hand
hoe before stepping forward for using tractor in agricultural activities. This study intended
to determine factors hindering adoption of draught animal power innovation under
Participatory Agricultural Development and Empowerment Project (PADEP) at Handeni
district. Five villages were used to get a total of 120 respondents who were then
interviewed using interview schedule. Data obtained were analyzed using SPSS computer
programs where descriptive statistics, Likert scale and logit model of regression were
used. It was found from this study that farmers had negative perception towards PADEP
meanwhile having positive perception towards the use of DAP. It was also found that
despite the project involving DAP use, most of farmers, including those who were
involved in the project and those who were not involved in the project in the study area
were still using a hand hoe. This was contributed in most cases by lack of capital which
could be used to run other agricultural technologies having some kind of costs when
compared to hand hoe. It was revealed further that there were some factors which
statistically influenced positively to the adoption of DAP in the study area. These include
household size, average income, costs, extension services and market. Others were
relative advantage, compatibility to the past experience and complexity of the technology.
These were statistically found to have p < 0.05 values. Those influenced negatively to the
adoption of DAP include age, sex, marital status, farm size, land size owned by the
farmer, trialability and observability of the technology. These had p > 0.05 values. From
these findings I recommend that projects on the use of DAP should be established and
continued by both government and private institution meanwhile putting emphasis on
factors found to influence positively the adoption of DAP technology in the study area.
