DETERMINANTS IN AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION AND ROLE OF EDUCATION (A Case of Rice Production in Chitwan and Kavre Districts of Nepal)

Abstract

Proper understanding of the agricultural technology adoption process is central to development of agriculture sector. The main objective of the study was to identify the major determining variables of technology adoption and their level of contribution to embodied (improved rice varieties) and disembodied (integrated pest management) agricultural technologies in a smallholding farming context. A conceptual framework was developed based on the utility maximization theory, the theory of planned behavior, and the human capital theory to understand and explain the adoption process. Based on the post-positivist paradigm, a cross-sectional survey was administered to collect data from 538 households in Chitwan and Kavre districts. Samples were chosen through a multi-stage random sampling method. Data analysis was carried out by using logistic regression and descriptive statistics. The results suggested that technological attributes (i.e., perceived economic and non-economic benefits) and farmers’ knowledge base (education) were the main determining factors for technology adoption. While age, formal education, farm size, informal education, economic benefits and non-economic benefits of technology determined the embodied technology adoption; ethnicity, gender, non-formal education, informal education, access to extension services, and non-economic benefits significantly contributed to the disembodied technology adoption. Age negatively influenced technology adoption, whereas women were found to be more receptive to adopting the technologies. Education had differentiated influence based on the type of agricultural technology. Formal education, which is expected to improve the cognitive and abstract reasoning ability of farmers, was found to be more conducive to the embodied technology adoption. Whereas, non-formal education, which enhances practical skills of farmers through dialectic learning process, was found to be more likely to promote disembodied technology adoption. It was also found that formal education positively contributed in enhancing farmers’ human capital and the adoption process of the embodied technology.