Assessing Factors Influencing Farmers Adoption of Improved Potato Varieties in Malawi

Cultivation of improved varieties is one way of increasing productivity of many crops especially in developing countries where there is pressure of land due to high population growth. Adoption studies have proved to be helpful in giving the picture of the performance of technologies amongst users like farmers and in line with this the study was carried out to assess the factors that influence a farmer to adopt improved potato varieties using cross-sectional data that was collected from 300 households by the International Potato Center (CIP) in 2013. The study used a Hurdle Poisson model to effectively assess the socio-economic and demographic characteristics that influence farmers to adopt improved potato varieties. The results of the study show that amongst the household socio-economic characteristics that were included in the model, age of the household head and farm size were significant at 5 percent level of significance whilst access to information through extension agents and distance to the market were the institutional factors that significantly influence a farmer. The results further show that the variety characteristics that were significant in influencing adoption of improved potato varieties included high yield, early maturity and larger tuber size that were preferred variety characteristics. Results of the decision on how many potato varieties individual farmer decides to grow shows that age of the household head, access to information and varieties that are high yielding had a significant influence. To increase adoption of recommended potato production practices, it was recommended that extension agents should be well involved in disseminating these production practices by using open field days, demonstration and control plots to encourage farmers to adopt the production practices. Secondly, the study also recommended that Government and other stakeholders need to also invest in extension service in sensitizing potato farmers in key potato production areas especially on production practices that have potential to increase level of adoption as well as farmer’s productivity and income.