Abstract
An effective and efficient agricultural extension system can enhance the agricultural productivity and production of smallholders through the development of innovative, systematic, and farmer-owned agricultural extensions. This study identified major constraints of adoption of agricultural extension package technologies such as adoption of inorganic and organic fertilizers, improved seeds, row planting, and crop protection chemicals at smallholder household level on sorghum crop production. The study used cross-sectional survey data collected from 201 sample respondent household farmers. To analyze data, descriptive statistics, ranking indexes, graphs, and tables were used. The study identified the major constraints of agricultural extension package technologies. High price, problem of on-time provision, shortage and uneven distribution of rainfall, and problem of accessibility were the major constraints that hinder the use of inorganic fertilizer. Using sources of organic fertilizer for other purposes, insufficient availability, undeveloped infrastructure, and facilities and requirement of more labor were the major constraints to the use of organic fertilizer.
Highlights
Agriculture is the most important sector for sustaining growth and reducing poverty in Ethiopia
According to basic data of the West Hararghe zone of agriculture and natural resource office [28], the Mieso district is located at about 300 km from Addis Ababa to the east in West Hararghe administrative zone of Oromia regional state and 25 km to the west of Chiro town, capital of the zone, whereas the Gemechis district is at 343 km east of Addis Ababa and about 17 km south of Chiro. e district of Mieso covers an area of 186,716 ha and has 31 rural and 1 urban area
Among the major constraints that hinder the utilization of inorganic fertilizers that were raised by sample respondent household farmers were the high cost of fertilizer, shortage and uneven distribution of rainfall, problem of providing inorganic fertilizer on time, problem accessibility at the nearest place, and shortage of money to purchase inorganic fertilizer ranks from one to five, respectively
Summary
Agriculture is the most important sector for sustaining growth and reducing poverty in Ethiopia. As the production of agricultural crops could not satisfy food demand in Africa, importing huge tons of food is very common in most African countries. To these facts, Nigeria relies on food imports to meet its domestic demand, with the import bill for wheat, rice, sugar, and fish estimated at USD 6.4 billion per annum [3]. There are limited research findings that identify constraints raised by small household farmers on the production of agricultural crops, sorghum crop production in which major agricultural technologies adoption is very low when compared with other major crops. Us, the study was intended to identify constraints that hinder the adoption of agricultural extension package technologies at the smallholder household level on sorghum crop production in the West Hararghe zone of Oromia regional state
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