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Factors affecting Adoption of agricultural technologies Most adoption studies aimed at establishing factors underlying adoption of improved innovations.

As a result, there is an extensive body of literature on the theory of innovation adoption. Bonabana-Wabbi (2002), in her study, pointed out several of such factors that can affect adoption. According to her, they include among others; government policies, technological change, market forces, environmental concerns, demographic factors, institutional factors and delivery mechanism. On this note, Chigona and Licker, (2008) said that one of the first steps toward maximizing the rate of adoption of innovations is to understand these factors as they can influence adoption. Socio-Economic Factors Socio-economic factors have been reported to significantly influence adoption of agricultural technologies. In a survey report by the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR 2001) in Nigeria, women are being prohibited to be directly involved in farming activities in some communities in northern Nigeria because of religious limitations. The report therefore stated that sex composition in cowpea production is very vital as the role of each sex is seen as very crucial to the production of the crop. In her findings, Kamara (2009) reported that male adoption of soybean was higher than that of the female in Borno State. She however stressed

the importance of the roles both sexes play in soybean production and again stated that majority of households who adopted the soybean technology were those headed by males. Yanguba (2004) in support of this said education of household head and farming experience is expected to have a positive effect on adoption of agricultural technologies. Bonabana-Wabbi (2002) classified age as the primary latent characteristic in adoption decision. Farmers perception that technology development and the subsequent benefits, require long duration to realize, can reduce their interest in the new technology because of their advanced age and the possibility of not living long enough to enjoy it (Caswell et al., 2001; Khanna, 2001). Institutional Factors Institutional factors and policy variables that include the extent of competitiveness of credit and labor markets, access to extension, the land tenure system, and social prescribed gender roles make up the other set of determinants of adoption and disadoption, (Tura, et al., 2009). The effect of land tenure security is expected to be positive on both technology adoption and continuation. Farmer who does not own land may not be able to capture the full returns from investments in new technology, and thus, will be less willing to use new technology. This is either because they must share the increased product with a landlord or because the expected flow of returns exceeds their period of secure tenure. Inadequate

infrastructure like roads and lack of seed are other external factors affecting technology adoption and dis-adoption. Households living near major towns have good access to both physical infrastructure and seed supplies hence are expected to be using previously adopted technologies. Since prices of seed and fertilizer are the major cost components of production, a rise in input, coupled with other constraints, may render farm activities unprofitable which is in line with disenchantment theory of dis-adoption (Oladele, 2005).

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