A Farm Typology for Adoption of Innovations in Potato Production in Southwestern Uganda

Abstract

In Uganda, low productivity of potato might be associated with poor and diverse adoption of innovative crop management practices. This paper aims to identify the potato farm typologies in southwestern Uganda, i.e., collections of farms that are homogeneous in uptake of innovations (use of fertilizer, organic input, fungicides, pesticides, seed selection methods, seed refreshment by using quality declared seed, and sole cropping), and to analyse these typologies based on socioeconomic characteristics, access to agricultural extension services, memberships of farmers' groups, yield levels of potato and return rates. A farm household survey (n = 270) was carried out and principal component analysis and cluster analysis were used to identify types of farms differing in adoption of innovations. Four farm types were identified that demonstrated significant differences in uptake of innovation practices; despite the small differences in yield among farm types, differences in uptake were associated with significant differences in the yield and further in land ownership, availability of laborers and cash, economical return, and access to knowledge. The farm type with relatively high frequencies of using organic input, fungicide input, pesticide input, seed plot technology or positive selection, quality declared seed, and sole cropping achieved highest potato productivity; the farm type with relatively frequent use of fungicide input and no use of pesticides was associated with the lowest potato yield. The findings emphasize associations between innovation uptake and farm characteristics. Opportunities for improvement through extension services and shared knowledge can achieve wider adoption, enhance potato productivity and increase income for smallholder farmers.

Potato Yield and Yield Components as Affected by Positive Selection During Several Generations of Seed Multiplication in Southwestern Uganda

“…Our long-term experimental yields ranged from 8.1 to 39 Mg ha −1 with an average of 18.5 Mg ha −1 and were much higher than the average yields reported for the country (4.2 Mg ha −1 ) and the average yields obtained by farmers in the region (9.5 Mg ha −1 ; Priegnitz et al 2019a). This might have been due to relatively good crop management practices (van der Zaag 1987), including fertilization of 45 kg N ha −1 , spraying against Phytophthora infestans and rogueing against bacterial wilt in order to avoid a complete loss of potato plots.…”

Current status of knowledge about end-user preferences for boiled potato in Uganda – A food science, gender and demand perspective

“…Factors hindering adoption of released varieties have been associated to low adoption of innovative crop management practices such as use of fertilizers, crop protection products, and seed selection methods, amongst others (Priegnitz et al, 2019). Farmers with limited access to land, labor and knowledge usually have the least ability to adopt innovative practices, and this translates into low adoption of new and improved varieties (ibid).…”

Typology of Forest Users in West Usambara Tanzania and Implication to Forest Management

“…A typological approach has been used in various fields of concern-for example, in agriculture, to profile farmers for improving policy decisions [40], scaling for agricultural inputs (e.g., in Rwanda) [41], understanding the adoption of innovation and technology [42], farms' resource use efficiency [43], farms' economic characterization [44], and capturing the diversity of farming systems [45], among others. In other studies, typologies have been used to understand the patterns and efforts related to collaboration in environmental issues [46], thus proposing socioecological system benefit-sharing mechanisms in developing economies [47].…”

“…Table 3 outlines the 17 variables used in the factor analysis procedure. The decision for each variable's appropriateness in the factor analysis was based on the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) statistic [77], which provided an overall score of 0.739 and a significant Bartlett Sphericity Test (X 2 = 1348, d.f = 190, p < 0.0001), indicating the validity of the analysis [42] by satisfying the necessary conditions to run the factor analysis [78]. A reliability test with a Cronbach's Alpha of 0.80 indicated a high level of scale consistency [57].…”