Abstract
The adoption of inorganic fertilizer such as NPS which is concerned by development clients and government is different from one farmer to another farmer and this makes productivity of agricultural crops to vary from one plot to another plot due to socio-economic, institutional and other factors. Therefore, this study was intended to know the socio-economic factors that significantly affect utilization of inorganic fertilizer NPS. Primary data was collected from 201 sampled households of selected districts. Secondary data was collected from stakeholders related with production of sorghum and inorganic fertilizer NPS in the study areas. In the sampling procedure, two stage simple random sampling was used. In the first stage, kebeles were randomly taken from total kebeles in the two districts. In the second stage, households were randomly selected from the selected kebeles. Data was analyzed using descriptive, inferential statistics and econometric models methods of data analysis. In econometric models Double Hurdle model was use to know factors affect adoption decision of inorganic fertilizer NPS and intensity use of inorganic fertilizer NPS. Double Hurdle model result confirms that district of the household, education level, family size, extension visit, expectation of the coming rainfall by the household, number of farm plot owned, total farm land owned and off/non-farm income earned by the household significantly affect adoption decision inorganic fertilizer NPS. Double hurdle model result also reveals that, district of the household, livestock holding, number of farm plot owned, participation on agricultural training by the household significantly affect intensity use of inorganic fertilizer NPS. Government and concerned stakeholders should give attention on these significant socio-economic factors so that utilization inorganic fertilizer can be improved to sorghum crop productivity.
Highlights
Ethiopia as in most SSA countries, the yield productivity gap is huge for most crops i.e. the actual yield is below the potential yield
Where n is the sample size, Z is confidence level (α=0.05), p is proportion of the households participating in adopting inorganic fertilizer NPS in sorghum production in the study areas and it is assumed that 50% (0.5), q=1p and E is level of precision which is equal is 0.07
A Double Hurdle Model was used to know the determinants of adoption decision and intensity use of inorganic fertilizer NPS on the production of sorghum
Summary
Ethiopia as in most SSA countries, the yield productivity gap is huge for most crops i.e. the actual yield is below the potential yield. The sources of plant nutrients for Ethiopian agriculture over the past five decades have been limited to urea and Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertilizers which contain only Nitrogen and Phosphorus that may not satisfy the nutrient requirements of crops including sorghum In this regard Shiferaw (2014) reported that Ethiopian soils lack most of the macro and micronutrients that are required to sustain optimal growth and development of crops. Best use of inorganic fertilizers is recommended and promoted by agriculture sectors to improve the productivity at farm level As it is known cultivation of more land is very much limited in the country in general and in west Hararghe in particular due to the critical shortage of agricultural land. This study was intended to know socio-economic and institution factors that affect the adoption of the new inorganic fertilizer NPS to work on these factors to improve the utilization of the inorganic fertilizer and contributing to the achievement of food security program
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