Determinants of Decision to Use Herbicides by Smallholder Farmers: The Case of Dale Sadi District Kelem Wolega Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted in Dale Sadi district Kelem Wolega Zoneof  Oromia Regional State. Even if progresses have been seen through time, decision to use improved agricultural technology was found at its low level. Therefore, the study was initiated to identify factors affecting herbicides use decision by smallholder farmers. The typical data used was cross sectional data that were collected from 140 respondents. Primary data was collected by using semi-structured questionnaire and secondary data were collected from articles, journals and others. For analysis of data descriptive statistics such as mean, maximum, minimum and percentage were used and for econometric analysis double hurdle model was employed for analyzing primary data collected by survey questionnaire. The descriptive analysis revealed that 70.71% of farm households were user of herbicides while the remaining 29.29% were non user. The result from Econometric analysis revealed that, Sex of household head, education status, total livestock owned and access to credit service has influencing positively and significantly to decision to use and volume of herbicide applied to an hectare of farm land. Whereas, distance of farmers’ home from the nearest market influence volume of herbicides applied to hectare of cultivated land negatively and significantly. Therefore, concerning body should focus on promoting training, increasing existing access to credit service and improve market infrastructure that would enhances agricultural technology use to transform agricultural economy and enhance role of improved agricultural technology in economic development.

Keywords: Decision to Use, Double Hurdle Model, Smallholder, Technology

DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-13-02

Publication date:July 31^st 2021