THE IMPACT OF ADOPTING WHEAT ROW PLANTING TECHNOLOGYON YIELD: THE CASE OF SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN CHEHAWOREDA, GURAGE ZONE, SNNPR, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Adoption of yield increasing technologies is seen as a key driver to increase agricultural production in Ethiopia. There is, however, a lack of empirical evidence on the impact of programs aiming to scale up the adoption of improved technologies from research settings to the farm level. To fill this gap, this paper assesses the impact of the row planting technology specifically wheat crop on yield in cheha wereda Gurage zone. Both descriptive and econometric data analysis techniques were applied. The analysis was based on primary household level cross sectional data collected from 324 randomly selected rural households of which 130 user of row planting and 194 row planting non-user and secondary data were employed. Both descriptive and econometric data analysis techniques applied in this study. The result of the study showed most of the household’s characteristics are statistically significant with user and non-user households. Variables like household age; household size; household income before sowing in birr; income after sowing in birr; total wheat yield and income after in quintal shows statistically mean difference between user and nonuser households. The study used four matching methods; these methods are; nearest neighborhood, radius, kernel and stratification matching methods to identify the impact of row planting technology on households’ yield production. Practical training should be provided for the farmers and there should be easy referral systems where user households can go when they face difficulties, maintenance issues and spare parts.