DISPARITY IN ADOPTION OF WHEAT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY PACKAGES IN EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Production of wheat by smallholder farmers in Ethiopia contributes a significant share to the agricultural production of the country. However, the actual productivity of the crop has been far below its potential. Varied levels of technology adoption are often observed among smallholder farmers producing the crop. For enhanced dissemination of technology packages and improving wheat productivity, it is vital to elucidate socio-economic factors that are behind disparity in technology adaption among smallholder farmers. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyse the socio-economic, institutional, and other pertinent variables that determine the existing disparity observed among smallholder farmers in terms of adopting wheat production technology packages in Gurawa and Meta districts of eastern Ethiopia. The study utilized survey data collected from 124 randomly selected wheat households producing wheat. For this purpose, an ordered logit model was applied. The econometric results revealed that age of the household head, membership in cooperative institutions, and household annual income significantly and positively explained the disparity observed in adoption of wheat production technology packages. Conversely, gender of household head (sex), farming experiences, number of plots owned, and frequency of contacts with extension agents explained the disparity significantly, but negatively. It could be concluded that development practitioners, planners, and policy makers should give due considerations to the aforementioned socio-economic and institutional factors when designing dissemination of wheat production technology packages for adoption by farmers.