Review on factors affecting adoption of improved maize seed technology in Ethiopia

Introduction

Maize (Zea mays L.) is a multipurpose cereal crop that provides food for human, feed for animals especially poultry and livestock and raw material for the industries. It is the third most important cereal crop after wheat and rice. Maize is stable food in Ethiopia and can be prepared as soft pancake (Injera), porridge (Genfo), roasted (kolo), boiled (nifro) or brewed to produce an alcoholic beverage (Tela) (Farhad et al., 2012). In terms of production and yield maize is the most important in Ethiopia. The majority maize production (94%) occurs during the long rainy season (Meher, June to September) the Sidama and North Omo zones account for approximately 32% and 19% respectively of maize produced in southern Ethiopia, in this area maize is most important stable crop in terms of cultivated area production and yield. The potential for increased yield is grater where improved verities and optimum agronomic practice are used (Getahun et.al, 2010) [12] . Several studies attempt to evaluate the adoption of improved technologies in Ethiopia. Identification of factors by itself is the challenging academic exercise however; depends to a large extent on their ability to attract the attention of development practitioners and policy makers in effect. If these factors are to be of practical importance, development practitioners and policy makers need to be informed about the likelihood of the effectiveness of the alternative strategies that could be used (Bedassa, 2011) [4] . In Ethiopia attempt have been made to defuse new agricultural technologies since end of 1960 when the Chilalo agricultural development unit (CADU) was established in Chilalo district. New technologies where later expand to areas out the Chilalo Agricultural Development Unit mandate area by the extension and project implementation department (EPID) of the minister of agriculture (MOA), thorough a minimum package program in (Tesfaye et al., 2011) [23,24] . Since then considerable efforts have been made to extend the new technology like fertilizers, improved varieties, herbicides, insecticides and other improved agronomic practice. Even though many efforts are made improved maize seed technology has not been widely adopted by farmers (Mulugeta, 2012). Maize & other cereal farms in the country are generally constrained by low labor productivity and lack of productivity augmenting in puts such as high yielding variety seeds and fertilizers poor extension services, Shortage of traction power and declining fertility of farmlands are also among the main problems. One feasible alternative through which the lively hood of these farmers could be improved is by adopting improved maize seed (Mulugeta, 2012). However, high yielding improved maize variety seeds cannot be purchased or sold in competitive markets in Ethiopia yet with institutionally rationed supply of seeds, extension advice and both free market and government base supply of complementary packages such as fertilizers and pesticides, the number of small scale farmers adopting high yielding variety (HYV) maize technology in Ethiopia is rapidly growing based on the premise that achieving substantial productivity increase requires giving farmers appropriate extension messages and complementary institutional arrangements (Bedassa, 2011) [4] . Different agricultural extension programs that strive to achieve this end have been implemented over the past two and half decades all the programs have involved the distribution of modern in puts such as fertilizers, improved www.extensionjournal.com seed and related technology packages however the scale and organization of institutional arrangements, the approach and emphasis were different from program to program. Thus, this review identified the constraints and the given solution to adopt improved maize seed technology packages in Ethiopian context. [1] .

Stage of Technology Adoption

The Process of Adoption

The adoption is a decision-making process, in which an individual goes through a number of mental stages before making a final decision to adopt an innovation. Decisionmaking process is the process through which an individual pass from first knowledge of an innovation, to forming an attitude toward an innovation, to a decision to adopt or reject, to implementation of new idea, and to confirmation of the decision (Roger and Shoemakers, 1971). The adoption or rejection of an innovation is the consequence of diffusion of an innovation. Diffusion is a process by which new ideas are communicated to the members of a social system (Roger and Shoemakers, 1971

). An innovation is an idea, method or object which is regarded as a new by an individual, but which is not always the result of recent research (Van den Ban, 1998). Diffusion and adoption are thus closely interrelated even though they are conceptually distinct (Dasgupta, 2009) [8] . Not all innovations diffuse at the same rate. The differences in the diffusion rates of innovations in a community can be largely explained by the differences in the traits of innovation, as perceived by potential adopters such as: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trial ability and observability (Dasgupta, (2009) [8] .

According to Dasgupta (2009) [8] , adopters have a high rate of literacy and higher level of formal education, operate large sized holdings, own the land they operate, have a relatively high income and economic status, are commercial in farming operation, have relatively high level of extension contact, and belong to upper socio-economic status categories. On the other hand, non-adopters have a low rate of literacy and level of formal education, operate smallholdings, are mostly small and marginal farmers, belong to low income group, have a low level of socioeconomic status categories.

Classification of stage of Technology Adoption

Christensen's R (2008) [7] classify stage of technology adoption as follows:

Stage 1. Awareness: when someone aware that technology exists but have not used it, perhaps he or she might be even avoiding it and anxious about the prospect of using technology.

Stage 2. Learning the process: someone currently trying to learn basis.

Stage 3. Understanding & application process: when someone beginning to understand the process of using the technology &can think of specific task in which it might be useful.

Stage 4. Familiarity &confidence: someone gaining a sense of confidence in using technology for specific task and starting to feel comfortable in using technology.

Stage 5. Adoption to other

Model of Technology Adoption Rogers model for the adoption &diffusion of innovation:

The innovation adoption curve of Rogers is a model that classifies adopters of innovation to various categories based on idea that certain individuals are inevitably more open to adaptation than others it is also referred as multi step flow theory of diffusion of innovations theory.

1. Innovator: brave people, pulling the change innovators are very important communication 2. Early adopters: respectable people, opinion leaders, try out new ideas but in a careful way 3. Early majority: thoughtful people, careful but accepting change more quickly than the average 4. Late majorities: skeptic people will use new ideas/ product only the majority is using it 5. Laggards: traditional people, caring for the old way, are critical towards new ideas &will only accept it if the new idea has been mainstreams.

Source: (Tesfaye, 2011) [23,24] . Sources; (Bedassa, 2011) [4] .

Factors Affecting Improved Maize Adoption in Ethiopia

There are different factors that affect adoption of improved maize seed, these factors can be categorized in to three main groups.

Institutional factors

Institutional factors are also having important role in influencing the behaviors of farmers contact in adoption of improved technologies. Institutional factors like frequent extension contact is positively related to the adoption decision of farmers (Habtemariam, 2014, and Kansana et al., 1996) [13,14] in their study reported that the availability of reliable information sources will enhance communication process and had significant associations with adoption of improved technologies. (Tesfaye et al., 2011) [23,24] . reported that access to credit had a significant and positive influence on the adoption of improved technologies.

The study conducted by (Rahmeto, 2013) on adoption of improved maize technology has shown significant relationship to nearest market distance. However, (Shivani et al., 2010) reported that the distance to market is negatively related to maize adoption. Participation in extension training will enable farmers to get more www.extensionjournal.com information and improve their understanding about the available packages, which may intern leads to a change in their knowledge, attitude and behavior. According to (Tesfaye et al., 2011) [23,24] , attendance of agricultural training is positively and significantly related to the adoption of improved maize technologies. 1. Extension service: it was hypothesized that contact with extension agent (development agent) will increase farmers' livelihood of adopting improved maize seed. It is measured as the number of contacts between the extension agent and the farmer (Mulugeta, 2005) explained that extension service is measure of number of visits per month by the extension worker to a farmer during the cropping season. It is positively and significantly influenced the adoption and intensity of use of improved maize seed. each additional by the extension agent to farmer increased the probability of adoption of improved maize seed and also increased the number of hectares of land planted with improved seed and the number of users. 2. Distance the nearest market: Distance to the nearest input market is another factor which has a negative significant influence on the extent of adoption of the farmers. It was hypothesized that those farmers who live in remote area are reluctant to adopt improved seed. This is possibly because they have limited access to modern agricultural inputs and market information (Tesfaye, 2011) [23,24] . 3. Access to credit: the provision of micro credit to farmers is seen as effective strategies for promoting the adoption of improved technologies. it is be lived that access to credit promotes the adoption of technology through the relation of the liquidity constraints as well as through boosting of house hold risk bearing ability with the option of borrowing. A house hold can do away with risk reducing but in efficient income diversification and concentrate more on risky but efficient investment and credit constraint are responsible for the low adoption of hybrid maize seed due to its requirement for costly seed (Eswaran and Kiowa, 2010) [10] . 4. Availability of maize seed: availability of maize seed at the right time and the required quantity has the expected positive and significance influence on adoption and level of use of improved maize seed. More over provision of improved maize seed increases the number of hectares planted with improved variety of maize and users of improved seed. Ethiopia in general about the supply of improved seed in short supplies and hence adoption becomes a question of provision of the recommended quantity and problem of timely provision of maize seed (Alene, 2010) [2] .

Personal and demographic factors

These factors are the most common household characteristics which are mostly related with farmers' adoption behavior. These includes Ages, sex, education, farming experience have reviewed by (Shivani et al., 2010).

1. Farming Experience: Habtemariam, (2014) [13] found that the most efficient farmers appear to have less farming experience than the least efficient once. More experience is negatively related to adoption at older age. The result of (Chilot et al., 2011) [6] also indicated that farming experience does not matter in the adoption of improved wheat and coffee technologies.

2. Household size: it is the number of persons lived in one house. Larger house hold will be able to provide the labor that might be required by improved maize seed. This house hold size would be expected to increase the probability of adoption (Getahun et al., 2010) [12] .

Level of education:

education level of farmer is a factor that the literature frequently relates to greater rates of adoption of new technology. Education level is the years of schooling of farmers, participation in formal training. Schooling increases the probability of adoption. a farmer who has more years of education is more likely to adopt improved maize seed than those who have never been to school (Tesfeye, 2011). The more house hold head is expected to be more efficient to understand and obtain new technology in shorter period of time than un educated people. education enhance farm productivity directly by improving quality of labor, to help farmers master new information and develop new skill by increasing the ability to adjust instability of situation and though this increase the propensity to successful adopt innovation. One can conclude that adoption of improved technology is directly influenced by the level of education of the farmer (Asfaw, 2014) [3] .

4. Age of the farmer: the age of farmer can generate or erode confidence in other words with age a farmer can became more or less risk averse to new technology. It is hypothesized that a farmer age can increase or decrease the probability of adopting technology. Younger farmer is more knowledgeable and are likely to bear risk due to longer planning horizon, older farmers will be in opposition to experience much with their traditional farming practice and expected to be less responsive to newly introduced agricultural technology. So the age has negative influence on the probability of adoption (Million &Belay, 2014) [16] .

5. Gender of a house hold head: female or male headed house hold can have different adoption rate. This variable can both positively or negatively affect the adoption rate (Getahun et al., 2010) [12] . www.extensionjournal.com Source: (Tesfaye, 2011) [23,24] .

Economic factors

Economic related factors such as farm size, off-farm activities, live stock ownership influence farmers' adoption behavior. Concerning farm size, the findings of (Nkonya et al., 2005) reported that farm size exerts a positive influence on adoption of improved technologies. Contrary to this study, (Rahimeto, 2017) were reported that land holding was not significant in adoption of improved maize technology package. Off-farm and non-farm activities are the other important activities through which rural households get additional income. The income obtained from such activities helps farmers to purchase farm inputs. Review of some of the past empirical studies shows that the findings regarding the influence of off-farm/ non-farm income on adoption vary from one study to the other. However, majority of the studies reported positive contribution of off-farm and non-farm income to households' adoption of improved agricultural technologies. 1. Off-farm income: it is generated when a farmer or other family member works off on the farm, there by generating income for the family. it is also referred to as pluriactivity. off farm income is direct linked with part time farming, it refers to the portion of farm house hold income obtained off the farm (non-farm) including wages and salary and interest income earned by farm family. A farmer annual off-income positively increase the adoption of improved maize seed technology (Tesfaye, 2011) [23,24] .

Farm income:

it is the income of farmer gained annually. The farm income has influence on the adoption of improved maize seed; it enables a farmer to buy improved maize seed and other new technology (Asfaw, 2014) [3] .

3. Farm size: it is the average size of farm land owned by farmer. Farm size an indicator of wealth and perhaps a proxy for social status and influence within a community. It is positively associated with the decision to adopt improved maize technology (Getahun et al., 2010) [12] .

Adoption of Technology and Farmer Productivity

Agricultural productivity increases one of the desired out comes from sensible food security &agricultural policies. increased productivity might lead to improved welfare of rural populations through several pathways .first increased productivity leads to higher food availability at the house hold level second increased food availability leads to lower price of Agricultural products and higher real wage to the benefit of poor net buyers and wage laborers respectively .third a well performing agricultural sector has important economic multiplier effect on vibrancy of the of off-farm rural economy (Chencho, et, al, 2011) [5] . Productivity improving agricultural technology reduces poverty by increasing rural agricultural income, reducing www.extensionjournal.com food price, facilitating the growth of non-farm sector, by stimulating the transition from low productivity subsistence agriculture to high productivity agro-industrial economy. The potential for poverty reduction through the above transmission mechanisms depend on the extent to which agricultural productivity can be increased. Agricultural innovation can have both direct and indirect effects on poverty. The direct effects of the technological innovation on poverty reduction are those productivity benefits enjoyed by farmers who actually adopt the innovation, the benefits typically manifest themselves in form of higher farm profits. The indirect effects productivity induced benefits passed on to other by the innovating farmers. These may comprise lower food price, higher non-farm employment level, increases in consumption for all farmer. all of these effects dominantly depends largely on the speed with which farmers adopt new technology and on whether or not the affected house hold is net food buys or sellers (Dereje, 2006) [9] .

Summary and Conclusion

Maize is a multipurpose cereal crop that provides food for human, feed for animals and raw material for the industries. In terms of production and yield maize is the most important in crop in Ethiopia. But it is generally constrained by low productivity and lack of productivity due to inputs such as high yielding variety seeds and fertilizers poor extension services, Shortage of traction power and declining fertility of farmlands. To solve these problems large numbers of technologies have been generated; however, the adoption of these technologies by small holder farmer is limited by many factors. These factors can be categorized in to three main groups. These are institutional factors like extension service, distance from market, availability of credit service and availability of improved maize seed. Economic factors like farm size, farm income and off-farm income and demographic factor like house hold size, Level of education, age and gender can affect adoption of improved maize seed technology positively or negatively. Among these factors education level, extension service, credit access, distance from market, availability of improved maize seed, house hold size, offfarm income, farm size and farm income can affect adoption of improved maize seed technology positively; whereas, affect adoption of technology and gender can have both negative or positive impact on adoption of improved maize seed technology.

Recommendations

To increase the rate of adoption of improved maize technology the following measure must have been taken by both governmental and non-government organizations. Due attention should be given to education of farmer and extension service. Obstacle on shortage of income might be overcome if government and non-government organization provide farmers with credit when they need. Due attention should be given to the participation of farmers in agricultural information. Finally, attention should be given to the participation of farmers on new technology to promote adoption through sharing of knowledge by strengthening the frequency of extension contact.

Acknowledgement

First and foremost, we would like to thank and praise the almighty God for giving me the opportunity to finish or finalize this seminar. we the deepest gratitude to instructor Dr. Agegn Shibeshi our seminar advisor for his constructive comments and suggestions throughout our report. Without his professional assistance and guidance this seminar would not be valuable. We would also like to thank Mekdela amba University College of Agriculture and Natural Resource, for giving our computer access that allowed to our find many sources which are useful for our seminar.

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