Duration Analysis of Droughttego® Hybrid Maize Adoption in Kenya

Abstract

Previous studies have modelled determinants of adoption of new technologies, through static models, these models are inadequate in explaining the dynamic process of technology adoption. In this paper duration model is applied to capture the speed of the DroughtTEGO® hybrid maize adoption using a sample of 642 maize growing households. The result from descriptive analysis showed a high rate of awareness of DroughtTEGO varieties (61%) and about 42% cumulative adoption, with about half of the farmers started adopting in the first two years after they became aware of the varieties. The results further revealed, age of household head, dependency ratio, on-farm demonstration, women controlling household resource, and household income as the major factors that accelerate the adoption. In contrast, variables found to delay adoption were household and land sizes. There was also evidence that education, gender, record keeping and information from extension officer had no statistical influence on speed of adoption of DroughtTEGO seed. It was concluded that to accelerate large-scale DroughtTEGO hybrid adoption requires policies that; promote expansive on-farm demonstrations and the associated field-days, especially for young farmers; involvement of women in decision making particularly in farm resource allocation; and deliberate targeting of young farmers and those with large farms in deployment efforts.