Abstract:
The study was conducted in two wards Kolero and Kasanga of South Uluguru Mountains in Morogoro Region to assess factors influencing adoption of conservation agriculture. In this study the level of adoption was assessed, contribution of conservation agriculture in agricultural productivity was identified; and the influence of socio-economic factors and institution factors in adopting conservation agriculture were identified. The methodology involved a cross-sectional research design with sample size of 120 farmers from both adopters and non adopters. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select key informants in the two wards of Kolero and Kasanga. Random sampling was used to select four villages of Kasanga, Kolero, Kitonga and Lubasazi. The main methods of data collection used were structured questionnaires, personal observation, focus group discussion and interview. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were undertaken for quantitative data analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the factors affecting adoption of conservation agriculture. The findings show that farmers who adopted conservation agriculture were 67% while 33% did not. The results obtained from T test showed that there was significance influence (p<0.05) of maize yield before and after the adoption of conservation agriculture. The factors that significantly (p<0.05) affected the adoption of conservation agriculture were sex, level of income of farmers and land ownership. It is concluded that the rate of farmers who adopted conservation agriculture is still low. Hence it is recommended that policy makers should work on the factors that significantly influence adoption of conservation agriculture in order to encourage farmers to adopt it
