Determinants of the Adoption of Improved Sorghum and Sesame Seeds; the Case of West Gondar Zone, Ethiopia

Improved Seed is a key input for increasing crop production and productivity. Improving the quality of seeds can increase the yield potential of the crop by significant folds. However, due to the growing demands of the farmers in the study area for improved agricultural inputs, the supply sector could not satisfy the needs of the farmers. This indicates that there are different factors directly or indirectly influencing the input supply system. Hence, this study focuses on the Determinants of the adoption of improved Sorghum and Sesame seeds in West Gondar Zone. The research adopts a cross sectional survey design that combines both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. To conduct this study a multi stage purposive and simple random sampling technique was applied. A total of 150 sample household heads was selected from the two kebeles proportionally to their population size by using systematic random sampling technique. The data were collected from both primary and secondary sources of data. Data analysis was done by using descriptive statistics like frequency, mean, and standard deviation. Moreover, inferential statistics like Chi-square T-test was used to test whether there is a significant difference among the dummy/categorical and continuous variables respectively. The binary logit model was also used. The results of the study indicated that for both the technologies 83 (36.4%) of the sampled farm households were found to be adopters, whereas the remaining 145 (63.6%) were non-adopters. The maximum likelihood estimates of the logistic regression model show that livestock holding in TLU (LSTOCKHO), farming experience (FARMEXP), fertilizer use (FERUSE) and total income (TOTALINCOME) were important and significant factors influencing smallholder farmers’ adoption improved sesame seed variety in the study area. The government has to give a great emphasis on the technology dissemination and awareness about the adoption of improved seeds.