Unravelling technology-acceptance factors influencing farmer use of banana tissue culture planting materials in Central Uganda

Abstract

Effective management of plant health is fundamental for food and income security to meet the growing demands of local and global markets. This however requires farmers' adequate access to quality planting materials under the prevailing contextual and psycho-social factors. This study, anchored in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technologies, unravels technology-acceptance factors that influence farmers' intentions to use banana tissue culture planting materials in the control of Banana Xanthomonas Wilt. Data were collected from 248 randomly sampled banana farmers using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using structural equation modelling to examine hypothesized paths in the uptake of banana tissue culture planting materials. Results show that farmer intentions to use tissue culture planting materials are dependent on two constructs: social influence and farmer innovativeness. However, social influence is the main predictor of intentions to use tissue culture planting materials. In particular, farmer innovativeness mediates facilitating conditions and social influence in predicting intentions to use tissue culture planting materials. Thus, this study reveals two factors that influence farmer intentions to use tissue culture planting materials: social influence and farmer innovativeness. The findings imply that social influence and farmer innovativeness are critical in disseminating novel agricultural technologies in Uganda and elsewhere.

Seed Security Factors Driving Farmer Decisions on Uptake of Tissue Culture Banana Seed in Central Uganda

“…The average marginal effect (0.068) infers that having an influential person inform farmers about the importance of banana TC plants increases the likelihood of farmer uptake by 6.8%, suggesting that locally institutionalized mechanisms need to be promoted. Similar results are also reported by Mulugo et al [17] and Wauters et al [61] for Uganda and Belgium, respectively. Specific for Uganda, using faith-based leaders, political and community leaders urge farmers to use TC banana plantlets is a significant predictor of farmer intentions to use TC planting materials.…”

“…Social influence refers to the degree to which a farmer perceives that relevant people believe that he or she should use agricultural technology [17]. Studies [47,48] attest to social influence triggering individuals' behavioral intentions to use new technologies.…”

“…With the help of local council village chairpersons, names of all banana farmers from the selected villages that had been trained by The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) between 2008 and 2011 (comprising adopters and potential adopters of the TC banana technology) were compiled to generate the sampling frame with a total of 340 banana farmers (Table 1). Unlike Mulugo et al [17], who sampled users and non-users of the TC banana plantlets, here we selected adopters and potential adopters of the TC planting materials. The farmers had been trained on how to grow and manage TC banana plantlets, business and marketing and the establishment of farmer cooperatives linked to the TC community nurseries.…”

“…Research is well established in root and tuber crops [15,16]. Studies on the farmer environment to explain farmer behavior in the uptake of agricultural technologies [17][18][19] have been conducted, but most of the existing research is qualitative. Research is needed to understand quantitative factors influencing uptake of agricultural technologies such as banana TC plantlets.…”

Not only the seed matters: Farmers’ perceptions of sources for banana planting materials in Uganda

“… Kabunga et al, 2012a ), economic factors hindering adoption (e.g. Murongo et al, 2019 ; Muyanga, 2009 ) and other technology-acceptance factors ( Mulugo et al, 2019 ). The type and characteristics of the source or provider of the materials is usually not considered.…”