Abstract

Chickpea is one of the major pulse crops grown in southern Tigray in general and Enda-Mehoni district in particular. However, there are inadequate empirical evidences on adoption of chickpea varieties. This study aims to assess the determinants of adoption of chickpea varieties (Desi and Kabuli) by smallholder farmers. Both of the Desi and Kabuli types of chickpea were introduced by governmental and non-governmental organizations. For this study, data were collected from a total of 223 sampled households from Enda-Mehoni District. Descriptive statistics like frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviations and inferential statistics such as t-test and χ2-test were employed to see mean difference and association, respectively, between both adoption categories. The result of this assessment shows that from the total fifteen variables, nine of them were significant at 1, 5 and 10% probability levels between the adoption categories. Binary logit econometrics model was employed to identify the influence of hypothesized explanatory variables. The study found adoption of chickpea varieties are significantly influenced by household size, mobile phone access, residence of the household and participation of the household head in training. Hence, awareness creation through organizing trainings and strengthening the linkage between farmers-to-farmers with mobile phone owners is better if concerned governmental and non-governmental organizations considered it for further chickpea varieties adoption. In addition, it is equally important in targeting domain areas of dissemination and community based joint actions to facilitate chickpea varieties adoption in Enda-Mehoni district.

Key words: Adoption, binary logit, chickpea, Desi, determinants, Kubli