Adoption of improved cashewnut production technologies by smallholder farmer in Mtvvara district, Tanzania
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Date
2013
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SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE.
Abstract
The economy of Mtwara District heavily depends on cashew nut production. However, low production threatens the survival of more than 75% of the people who depend on cashew and also the economy of the district. Many technologies were developed by researchers and were made available to the farming communities to increase productivity. Technical backstopping from research was also provided from time to time to equip key stakeholders with appropriate knowledge and skills necessary to scale up cashewnutproduction.Despite those efforts, adoption of improved cashew technologies has not improved.The study was conducted to investigate the internal and external factors influencing adoption of improved cashew technologies among 200 smallholder farmers in 14 villages in Mtwara District.Binary logistic regression analysis was adopted to analyze the factors affecting adoption of improved cashew technologies. From the analysis it was found that, access to information, farm size, number of active labour in the household and years of schooling had significantly affected adoption of improved cashew technologies at (p<0.05). From this study, it was found that more than 50% of the improved cashew technologies developed by Naliendele Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) have reached cashew growing areas and about 43% of the respondents in the study area belonged to the adopter category and 57%
were non-adopters of improved cashew technologies. Theories guiding this study indicated that, the departure from low productivity to attain high productivity was through adoption of science-based technologies that eventually will enable farmers to produce at economies of scale.ln this context knowledge and technologies available in cashew, issues of acquisition of improved cashew materials and crop husbandry, aspects of insect pests and diseases control, methods of technology dissemination are highlighted.Additionally, challenges and opportunities lacing cashew industry are discussed and ways forward suggested. Therefore, this dissertation presents results of the findings and explores further options to improve uptake of cashew technologies by resource-poor farmers.
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Keywords
cashewnut, smallholder, farmer, Mtvvara district, cashew technologies