The contribution of the RIPAT approach in the adoption of agricultural technologies in the uluguru mountains
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Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Mkuki na Nyota Publishers Ltd
Abstract
Extension services play pivotal roles in linking farmers to knowledge,
information and technologies that are central to attaining agricultural
productivity. The limited number of extension agents coupled with the
use of inappropriate approaches in the delivery of extension services
has been regarded as one of the causes of low adoption of agricultural
technologies.
To overcome this, innovative and cost-effective
agricultural extension approaches have been developed and promoted.
One of such approaches is the Rural Initiatives for Participatory
Agricultural Transformation (RIPAT) which forms the focus of this
chapter. Specifically, the chapter presents: (i) the role of the RIPAT
approach in the adoption of agricultural technologies, (ii) technologies
promoted by the RIPAT-SUA project and their adoption by farmers,
and (iii) factors affecting the adoption of the promoted technologies.
The findings presented are drawn from an exploratory cross-sectional research done in six randomly selected villages surrounding the Uluguru
Mountains where the RIPAT-SUA project has been implemented.
A total of 238 households (120 RIPAT participating farmers and 118
non-group farmers) were randomly selected from the project villages
for the farmers' survey. Additionally, a total of 15 key informants were
involved in in-depth interviews. Desk review of project documents was
also conducted. Descriptive statistics and content analyses were used
for the quantitative and qualitative data analysis respectively. The study
found that a basket of options that gave farmers the opportunity to
choose the technologies they can implement was the key to adoption
of technologies. In this respect, 92.5% of the group members adopted
more than two technologies whereas 69% of non-group members
adopted at least two technologies from the basket of options. The
RIPAT approach has great potential to reach many farmers through its
scaling-up tactic involving the RIPAT start and RIPAT spreading groups
using lead farmers. This approach can facilitate the dissemination of
new agricultural technologies in situations with limited professional
extension workers. The study therefore recommends that the Ministry
of Agriculture should integrate the RIPAT approach in the public
agricultural extension framework.
Description
Journal article
Keywords
Extension approaches, Farmer groups, Basket of options, RECODA