Barriers to the adoption of farm conservation practices among farmers : a case of farmers in the refugee hosting sub-county of Omugo, Terego District

Abstract

The study assessed the barriers to the adoption of farm conservation practices among farmers in the refugee hosting sub county of Omugo, Terego district. The study utilized secondary data from World Vision that employed a cross-sectional research design with a sample size of 368 households. It sought to find out the relationship between adoption of at least one conservation practice and socio economic & demographic factors, institutional factors and bio physical factors. A binary probit regression was employed to assess the relationship of independent variables with the dependent variable. Marginal effects after the regression analyzed. Study results indicated that only 26% of households interviewed adopted at least one of the farm conservation practices. Sex of household heads negatively influence the adoption of FCPs, male headed households were less likely to adopt at least one farm conservation practices by 12.2 percentage points compared to those headed by females. As household size increases by one person the likelihood of adoption of a farm conservation practice increases by 1.2 percentage points. Households who live more than four kilometers from the market were 34.8 percentage points more likely to adopt at least one farm conservation practice as compared to the farmers who live less than a kilometer away from the nearest market. Households that farmed on personal land were 16.4 percentage points more likely to adopt farm conservation practices than their counterparts who rent land. Additionally, those who farm on communal land are 13.1 percentage points more likely to adopt farm conservation than those that rent the farmland. Households with access to credit were found to be more likely to adopt the farm conservation practices than those that did not have access to credit services. Access to credit by a household increased the probability of adoption of at least one FCP by 27.5 percentage points. Based on the findings, the study recommends that future project interventions directly target male inclusion in planned conservation agriculture activities to enhance adoption of the practices, advocates for change in institutional land tenure policy in access to land by mostly refugees in these communities. The study further recommends scaling up accessibility to credit by farmers in the sub county and intentional household mapping at the start of future project.