Agricultural technology adoption, extension service, impact on productivity : case study of smallholder farmers in Uganda

The study examines the determinants of agricultural practices adoption in Uganda and their effect on productivity, using a nationally representative data set of 1021 farming households, collected by the Ugandan Bureau of Statistics in 2018/2019. The agricultural practices analyzed are improved seeds, inorganic fertilizer, organic fertilizer, pesticide and participation in National agricultural advisory service programme in Uganda. Estimates from multivariate probit regression model shows the factor influencing farmers’ adoption decision differ among agricultural practices. Age, gender, crop system, area farmed, farmer group, household size, land ownership and asset value play significant roles with differing signs across the practices and that there is interdependence among the agricultural practices considered. Probit 2SLS reveals that inorganic fertilizer has positive and significant effects on crop productivity. The use of organic fertilizer and participation in NAAD have positive coefficient but not statistically significant. Also, Pesticide and improved seed has negative and insignificant effect. Findings imply that the interdependence nature of agricultural innovations should be considered in designing effective strategies for the development and dissemination of agricultural technology in Uganda and that several farm characteristics, socio-economic characteristics and household factors to ensure that farmers can maximize the benefits of Agricultural technology be put into consideration.