Determinants of Hybrid Maize Adoption in Kenya PDF Download

Author: Yu Wang
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Languages : en
Pages : 53

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Book Description
Kenya will increasingly rely on modern agricultural technology to increase productivity since land extensification is no longer a feasible option to satisfy national food demands. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the factors that affect the adoption of improved maize varieties in Kenya and the influence of farmers' preference on maize varieties. A field survey of 444 Kenya farm households was conducted by the University of Nairobi. A discrete choice model was constructed to determine the impact of demographic and socioeconomic variables and farmers' perception on the choice producers make between open pollinated varieties (OPV) and hybrid maize varieties. The importance of maize performance characteristics were identified by stated preferences of producers' weights of those characteristics across all farmers. Results indicated that producers stated preferences for choosing hybrid versus OPV have the most significant effect on the adoption and use of hybrid maize. Land preparation technique, drought effect, distance to market, age, gender, education level and occupation of the household head were also found to have significant influences. Improved yield performance is the most important characteristic. According to farmers' perceptions, hybrid maize performs worse than OPV maize in drought escape, which has a negative impact on hybrid maize adoption. Results suggest that yield potential was the greatest advantage for hybrid maize varieties, and also the most significant characteristic a household considered when make adoption decisions (39.66% weight). Maintaining the current levels of yield performance and finding ways to narrow the yield gap are the primary matters for future maize varieties, not only for hybrid maize, but also GM maize. Hybrid maize has poor performance on drought escape, and drought has a negative effect on hybrid adoption. It is necessary to improve the drought escape performance for the future maize varieties. Lower income families have a lower adoption rate on hybrid maize varieties, which indicates that the input including seed and fertilizer were burdens for low income family. Reducing the input cost and implementing credit contracts will increase adoption of new maize varieties.