Adoption of agro-forestry technologies among small holder farmers: A case of Zimbabwe

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to assess and compare the levels of adoption of agro-forestry technologies between trained and untrained farmers, and identify specific factors that affect adoption of technologies. Data from 300 smallholder farmers selected by snowballing from villages where change agents had been trained by the International Center for Research in Agro Forestry was collected using structured questionnaires. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science and Microsoft Office Excel. The results showed that there was low level of awareness of agro-forestry technologies among farmers. Formally trained farmers adopted agro-forestry technologies more than informally-trained farmers. Logit regression results showed that the likelihood to adopt live fence was influenced significantly by land ownership, awareness, training, drought, labour and local institutions (p<0.05). Adoption of trees for nutrition was influenced by belonging to a farming group, awareness, training, land size and local institutions (p<0.05). Adoption of improved fallows was influenced by employment status, belonging to farm group, awareness and land size (p<0.05). Factors that influenced adoption of fodder banks were employment status, awareness and training (p<0.05).