Abstract

The adoption of research outputs to bring the desired impacts is a major factor of any research work. Based on this premise, adoption likelihood analysis was used to determine the maximum likelihood of adoption of orange flesh sweet potato (OFSP) in Sierra Leone. The study was conducted in Western Area, Moyamba, Bo, Kenema and Bombali districts. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select the study samples. Data was collected from 200 sweet potato farmers using android devices programme with the Census and Survey Processing System (CSPro 6.3) software package. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the awareness and level of cultivation of OFSP genotypes and inferential statistics to determine the maximum likelihood (rate) of adoption. From the results, there is a high level of awareness (57.7%) of OFSP genotypes by sweet potato farmers within the treatment communities as opposed to farmers in the control communities (19.2%). The high level of awareness of OFSP genotypes by the farmers within the treatment communities is as a result of the establishment of SLARI trials and with frequent discussions taking place between farmers, research scientist and technicians. The results of the adoption likelihood analysis showed that different maximum adoption rates can be achieved by combining different dimensions in the three-function adoption likelihood model. Based on the farmer’s category, production goals and environments model, OFSP genotypes are likely to be adopted by farmers in the study area (MAR = 98.04%). However, the adoption rate is likely to be higher for farmers who prefer improved varieties, mainly cultivating for income, and have access to both upland and lowland ecologies. Therefore, those recommended factors should be considered in the future planning for OFSP interventions in Sierra Leone.

Key words: Adoption, likelihood analysis, orange flesh sweet potato (OFSP) genotypes, treatment communities, control communities.