Determinants of the Adoption of Forage Crops in the Rural Municipality of Koumbia in Burkina Faso

Abstract

To improve animal productivity and increase producers' income, forage production is encouraged by many development actors. However, these crops are low adopted by producers and struggle to be sustainably integrated into farms despite their technical potential. This study was conducted in the rural municipality of Koumbia with 73 agro-pastoralists. The objective of the study was to evaluate an optional approach to the development of fodder production implemented by the project "Production and development of fodder resources by small-scale producers in the High Basins region in intensive, market-oriented animal production. The quantitative research method was used to conduct the study. Thus, the questionnaire and the document review were used to collect information in the villages of Makognadougou, Gombélédougou, Sébédougou and Koumbia center, which represent the 4 villages in the commune that hosted the project. The information obtained was processed with SPSS version 26 software and then subjected to descriptive statistics analysis. The results obtained from the study reveal an adoption rate of 88% for forage crops. The factors that determine the adoption of these crops by producers are the level of education, access to land, improved income, availability of forage seeds and mastery of forage production techniques. These are the factors mentioned above that guide the decision and the logic of the choice of whether or not to adopt fodder crops among agro-pastoralists. The influence of these factors on the decision of these farmers depends on their perception of fodder crops as an alternative for feeding their animals. It should be noted that a negative perception of forage production has a negative influence on the decision to produce "grasses to feed animals" and inversely.