Adoption of high tunnels for tomato production in North East District, Botswana

MSc. Dissertation

High tunnel technology has been heralded as the panacea to propel medium and small scale tomato production due to high levels of efficiency and the potential to support sustainable socio-economic development in the face of current daunting challenges and opportunities to which farmers respond. However, despite the comparative advantages offered by the technology, its adoption by farmers has been far less than satisfactory. A study was therefore carried out to investigate constraints and determinants of high tunnels adoption for tomato production in the North East District of Botswana. In addition, evaluation of profitability of the high tunnels technology in the study area was carried out. A questionnaire was used to elicit primary information from 119 horticultural farmers in the district. The study employed both descriptive statistics and binary probit regression model to analyze determinants of adoption of the high tunnels for tomato production. From the study, prohibitive cost of high tunnels, inadequate knowledge on high tunnels, inadequate capital and markets were identified as major constraints that hinder high tunnels adoption. The adoption of high tunnels was found to be positively influenced by years of education, access to extension and farm size, but negatively influenced by farmer’s experience. The net profit for high tunnels was approximately BWP 388 783.97 (U$D 37712.05) compared to BWP 24 088.72 (U$D 2336.61) for open field in the 2015/16 production period. The study recommends tunnel designers to consider constructing the structure using local materials to cut down the startup cost. Furthermore, extension service organizations should be strengthened and the services and the extension system be improved to make their innovations relevant and up to date.