Abstract:
In the context of sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Ethiopia where agriculture and
specifically crop production take the lion’s share in economic development, supporting the
sector through introducing new agricultural technologies, like row planting technologies
in the recent times, boosts production and productivity of smallholder farmers and
therefore reduces food insecurity in the country. However, despite of such contribution,
utilization of improved technologies remained low in Ethiopia thereby in the study area. To
this end, the aim of this study was to look in to factors affecting adoption and intensity of
use of row planting technology on wheat production in Munesa district. Multi-stage
sampling procedure was followed to select the major wheat producing kebeles, the study
kebeles and households for the study. The major wheat producing kebeles were selected
purposively; three rural kebeles and 140 household heads were selected randomly using
probability proportional to size sampling. Structured interview schedule was developed,
pre-tested and used for collecting the essential quantitative data for the study from the
sampled households. Focus group discussion and key informant interview were also used
to generate qualitative data to get in-depth information for the study. Moreover, secondary
data were collected from published and unpublished sources. Data were analyzed, and
presented quantitatively using different statistical methods such as frequency, percentage,
mean, standard deviation. Inferential statistics such as Chi-square test (categorical
variables) and F-test (continuous variables) were also employed to test the variation of
sample respondents they have towards adoption and intensity of use of row planting
technology in wheat production. Tobit econometric model was employed to analyze
determinants of adoption and intensity of use of row planting technology on wheat
production using STATA software version 12. The model result indicated that literacy of
farmers, labor availability, frequency of extension contact, credit use, participation in row
planting training and availability of improved wheat seed do positively and significantly
influenced were as livestock size and market distance do negatively and significantly
affected adoption and intensity of use of wheat row planting technology in the study area.
Based on the findings of this study it can be concluded that policy and development
interventions should give emphasis towards improvement of such economical and
institutional support system so as to achieve wider adoption of wheat row plating
technology, increased production and productivity of smallholder farmer
