Accelerating agricultural growth remains one of the most urgent goal of Ethiopia as the agricultural sector is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy. The adoption of new agricultural technologies and improved practices are particularly important in increasing agricultural production. This comprises strengthening legumes adoption and production as it contributes to better food security and more sustainable farming systems. Grain legumes are necessary elements of crop production in Ethiopia. The adoption and use of legume crops have been advocated for enhanced nutrition and preserving soil resources. Different improved varieties and legume production technologies have been made available to farmers through various sectors and projects in the country. Various policy measures and initiatives have also been made in improving the adoption, technology generation and contribution of legumes to the various system. Despite their contribution and considerable initiatives, over-all level of adoption and use of legume production is still low. A wide array of technical, economic, social, and institutional factors has been found to encounter the adoption, use and production of legumes along with their value-chain. However, there are still various opportunities that different grain legumes are to be adopted and promoted to increase production and productivity. Essential interventions, innovative approaches, increased production packages and improved technologies and market access should be emphasized and integrated to strengthen grain legumes adoption and production.

Row planting is one of the technologies introduced in Ethiopia to improve production and productivity of the major crops. However, the rate of adopting the technology decline from time to time. Thus, this study aims to identify factors affecting adoption level and intensity use of Teff row planting technology in the selected districts of North Shewa Zone, Ethiopia. Multi-stage random sampling techniques were used to select 400 respondents. Adoption index, independent sample mean t-test, chi-square test and double hurdle model were used for data analysis. The results of adoption index reveals that among 400 sample households, 79.8% was non-adopter while 20.2% were adopter of Teff row planting technology. A total of 10 variables were hypothesized to affect the adoption level and intensity use of Teff row planting technology in the study area. Among these, 6 variables had significant effect on adoption level of Teff row planting technology while 4 variables had significant effect on the intensity use of Teff row planting technology. Accordingly, the experience of household in Teff production, education level of household head, family size, extension contact, credit utilization and demonstration site visit had positive and significant effect on the adoption level of Teff row planting technology adoption at 1, 1, 5, 1, 1 and 1% significance level respectively. Moreover, family size, education level of household head, frequency of extension contacts and demonstration site visit had positive and significant effect on the intensity use of Teff row planting technology at 10, 1, 1 and 1% significant level respectively. Hence, in order to increase the households’ adoption level and intensity use of Teff row planting technology in the study area, strengthening the extension services, improving the education level of the households, strengthening the credit services and expanding the demonstration site should be the focus area of the policy makers.

This study was conducted in the Tolon district of Ghana to determine small-scale farmers' perceptions, motivation and problems faced by them in the adoption of agroforestry practices. Primary data were collected through a pre-structured questionnaire from a sample of 200 respondents who were selected using a multi-stage random sampling technique. Data analysis was done by using the percentage and total weighted score (TWS) method. Most of the farmers in the study area have a positive perception of the adoption of agroforestry practices. Crop diversification, high returns and risk minimisation were the major motivational factor, whereas small landholding size, lack of awareness and poor knowledge, poor market accessibility, lack of subsidy, credit facility, lack of good quality planting material and longer period for tree growth were the major problems faced by the farmers in the study area. Thus, the study suggested that farmers can be encouraged to practice agroforestry through improved agroforestry extension services, cooperative groups and distribution of quality planting material to farmers.

Adoption of improved technologies and agricultural practices are prerequisites for increased farm productivity. Assessing the appropriateness of potential new technologies or practices increases the likelihood of adoption or modification to suit farmers’ needs; however, low farm output still persists among smallholders, attributable to several factors including poor and low adoption of modern production practices. This study therefore analyzed the index of adoption of recommended onion production practices (ROPPs) and correlation of multivariate factors among smallholder farmers in Dambatta, Kano State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used in selecting 100 respondents for this study. Primary data collected via well-structured questionnaires were analyzed using Descriptive statistics, Adoption index and Multivariate Correlation techniques.The results revealed that the prevalent ROPPs adopted by the farmers include improved onion varieties (78%), plant spacing (69%), planting method (55%), weed management (50%) and fertilizer application (44%). Moreover, most (72%) of the farmers have low adoption index (≤0.33). Further, significant correlations between multivariate factors (farm output, adoption cost and adoption index) exists and the estimated correlation coefficients for rxz, ryz and rxy were -0.53, 0.71 and -0.82 respectively. Subsidizing cost of adoption of ROPPs, improving access to modern production practices/technologies, agricultural credit/farm capital, extension services, adequate labour supply and tenure policy modification are recommended to ameliorate adoption constraints.

Food security is one of the major global challenges of the twenty-first century. World population is expected to increase by one-third, between 2009 and 2050, and in Asia, crop yield is estimated to decline by 5 to 30% from 2050 onwards compared to 1990. It is high time to seek alternatives that can increase production utilizing existing resources ensuring food security. A home garden can be a viable and sustainable alternative in this regard; nevertheless, it is often neglected. Thus, this study aims to understand the role of the home garden in maintaining household food security and enhancing rural women’s status in Nepal. Two villages of Bishnupur rural municipality, namely, Bajitpur and Musharniya were selected as study sites. 78.6% of households in Bajitpur and 68.4% households in Musharniya were found to have a home garden where crops and livestock were organized in an integrated way. The home garden was found to maintain household food security, ensure food availability for most of the seasons, access of household members to food, its utilization, and stability in production. Furthermore, 66.67% and 58.33% of women sold surplus home garden products in Bajitpur and Musharniya respectively. This signifies the role of home gardening activities in uplifting the social and economic status and, farming knowledge of rural women in both villages. However, there is a lack of extension facilities and subsidies for the home garden to encourage farmers. Therefore, different models of home gardens should be developed and disseminated, prioritizing the integration of the scientific farming system with traditional knowledge for sustainable adoption of the home garden in Nepal.

This paper examines factors determining farmers’ adoption decision for improved maize varieties in the maize-common bean intercropping practices in two districts of East Hararghe zone, Eastern Ethiopia. It is based on data collected from 129 farm households using structured questionnaire. Descriptive results revealed that adopters of improved maize varieties had better food and nutrition security status. Furthermore, logit model output indicated that the decision to adopt improved maize varieties is influenced by location (district) dummy, education status of the household head, age of the household head, distance from the main road, and the number of plots owned. Major recommendations include improving the rural road infrastructure, educating and training farmers, organizing experience sharing events among farmers, and raising awareness about the food and nutrition security benefits of sustainable agricultural intensification practices like intercropping improved maize with improved common bean varieties.

Binary logit regression model of econometrics was used to identify the factors affecting adoption of recommended agricultural technology by the commercial farmers of Nepal. A survey was carried out in 2012 in 120 households from Kavre district, Nepal. The objective was to appraise factors affecting adoption of recommended technology of cauliflower, finding out the level of adoption, identifying the constraints of cauliflower cultivation, assessing the perceived level of satisfaction and studying the relationship of certain selected variables on the adoption. Education, Occupation, contact with Personal Localite sources of information, Group membership and Experience were the most influencing factors for adoption of recommended technology. Though, other factors were not strong enough to contribute significantly but indirectly influence the adoption decision of farmers as combined effects. Occupation was found as negatively associated. Landholding size was strongly and positively influencing among the non significant factors. The level of satisfaction and the constraints of cauliflower production were also identified. Transfer of technology will be effective if and only if the client adopts the technology. For an effective transfer of technology, it is better to go for activities for the welfare of the socioeconomic factors of the farmers.

To enhance wheat yield, adoption and management practices have become a major concern of agricultural extension activities and low produce of wheat is partly due to poor agronomic practices in Ethiopia. Compared to broadcasting system, row planting gives better yield with quality of the seed at harvesting period. The study was conducted to assess the opportunities and status of wheat row planting by farmers. This study was used descriptive research design and employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Primary data were collected from 141_sample households which were selected randomly. Additional information was obtained from focus group discussion and key informant interview. The data has been analyzed by using simple descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage and standard deviation. Moreover, inferential statistics like chi-square and t-test were used. The result shows that, education level, family size, farmers experience, seeding rate per hectare, yield per hectare, fertilizer rate per hectare and income of household were positive association with wheat row planting in the study area. Also, non-adopter farmers was not use the existing opportunity such as off-farm income generating activities, contact with extension agents, credit use, membership in cooperatives and improved seed in the study area. Moreover, more than half of smallholders not adopt the wheat row planting system; meaning, still they use broadcasting system of Planting in their farms. Therefore, the study concludes that, Policies and strategies that focus on farmers’ education, implementation of well-established extension package are helpful so as to achieve wider adoption of row planting technology of smallholder farmer in the study area.

The aim of this study was to identify factors influencing the intensity of use of improved bread wheat package adoption in the study area. Two kebeles was selected randomly among the potentially wheat producing kebeles in each selected districts and a total of 120 randomly selected households were interviewed for this study. Tobit model was used to elucidate factors affecting adoption of technology packages. Result of the econometric model indicated, male headship (sex), TLU and multiple production objective orientation were important variables which had positively and significantly influenced adoption and intensity of adoption of improved bread wheat production package. Whereas, age of the household, increased annual off-non farm income, increased areas of own farm land, being far apart from the farmer training center and residences had shown negative relationship with adoption and intensity of adoption. The overall finding of the study underlined the high importance of institutional support such as extension; credit and market to enhance adoption of improved wheat production package. Therefore, policy and development interventions should give emphasis to improvement of such institutional support system so as to achieve wider adoption, increased productivity and income to small scale farmers.

Hidabu Abote, Dera, Wera Jarso and Debra Libanos districts of North Shewa zone are potential in honey production. To enhance this potential, different organizations disseminate improved beehives technologies for the smallholder farmers. However, the impact of the disseminated technologies on household income has not been evaluated. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the impact of improved beehive adoption on household income. Purposive and two stage sampling technique was used to select 384 sampled households. The study used logistic regression model to identify the determinants of adoption decision of modern beehive technology while propensity score matching to evaluate the impact of modern beehive technology adoption on household income. The result of logistic regression model shows that age of household head, family size, households experience in beekeeping, frequency of extension contact, access to credit services, access to training and access to beehive demonstration site visit had positive and significant effect on household adoption decision of modern beehive technology. The result of propensity score matching indicates that the adopters of improved beehive technology were earned Birr 2690.383 than non-adopter. The difference in household income between the two groups shows that there is considerable room for improvement of household income through increasing the number of adopter of improved beehives technology in the study area. This should be done through provision of training, credit, extension and expansion of beehive demonstration site among the others.