Abstract:
Ethiopia is the second biggest barley producer in Africa, next to Morocco, accounting for about
25 percent of the total barley production in the continent and it’s produced for consumption and
market purpose, though, productivity is very low. Improved malt barley was introduced by the
ministry of agriculture of Ethiopia to increase production and productivity. To get the expected
benefits, smallholder farmers are expected to adopt the technology although many of the farmers
did not adopt it by various factors. Hence, this study attempted to determine the factors affecting
adoption of improved Holker malt barley in Laygaynit District, south Gondar zone, Ethiopia
with the specific objectives of assessing farmers’ perception towards improved malt barley
variety, and the determinant factors that limit adoption. Probability and non-probability
sampling techniques were employed to select sampled respondents. A total of 153sample
respondents were selected for interview purpose. In line with this, combinations of data
collection techniques were employed to gather qualitative and quantitative data for the study.
Both primary and secondary data were collected and analyzed using SPSS version 21 and
STATA 14 software’s. Descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean, standard deviation and
inferential statistics like t-test and x
2
-test were employed to see mean and percentage difference
between both adopters and non-adopters. The result of the study indicated that about 46% of the
sample respondents were adopters of improved malt barley, while 54% non-adopters.
Accordingly, the result of the descriptive statics’ show that from the total seventeen variables
twelve of them show statistically significant mean difference with the decision at 1%,5% and
10% level of significance. On the other hand, model was employed to identify the factors
affecting adoption of improved Holker malt barley in the study area. Binary logistic regression
model results showed that, seven (7) variables were found statically significant in the adoption of
improved malt barley variety at 1%, 5% and 10% level of significance. In general, policy makers
and development interventions should give strong emphasis to support the improvement of this
technology, to improve the adoption of malt barley.
