Determinants of utilization of artificial insemination (AI) services among Ugandan dairy farmers.

Abstract

A Tobit Model was used to establish the relationship among variables that significantly influence the utilization of Artificial Insemination (AI) technology/service by dairy farmers in central Uganda. Crosssectional data were collected from a total of 180 randomly selected dairy farmers in Mukono, Wakiso and Kayunga districts of Central Uganda. The dairy farmers were categorized based on the breeding method used into AI-users and non-users (using natural service). The data included characteristics of the household and household head, farm and farm management and attributes of the AI service itself. Data were summarised to generate means, frequencies and percentages and a chi-square test was applied to test for the significance of the differences observed between means. Five factors positively associated with adoption and use of AI technology include age of the farmer, years of awareness of the AI technology, total farm milk production and sales, extension visits per year, and quality of AI services provided to the farmers. Factors negatively associated with adoption and use of AI technology are farm level cost of AI services, farming experience, herd size, and cattle breed. Intensifying extension in form of farm visits, improvement in the quality of AI service, reduction in the cost of AI services and increased availability of skilled AI technicians are suggested as avenues to enhance adoption and use of Artificial Insemination by dairy farmers in central Uganda: Keywords: Adoption, artificial insemination, Central Uganda, dairy farmersEastern Africa Journal of Rural Development Vol. 21 (1) 2005: pp. 34-43