INNOVATIONS ADOPTION LEVELS OF SMALL RUMINANT FARMERS IN TOLON-KUMBUNGU DISTRICT OF GHANA: THE ROLE OF FARMER SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS

Abstract

The rearing of small ruminants plays a major role in the farming system of the people of the Tolon- Kumbungu District of the Northern Region of Ghana. Small ruminant production is a major source of livelihood to over 70% of the inhabitants of the District. However, poor husbandry practices have often served as a major constraint to achieving production and productivity increases. This implies that small ruminant farmers need to adopt innovations in order to promote and sustain small ruminant production. This paper assesses the extent to which innovations introduced to the farmers in the study area are adopted, especially the role of farmer socio-economic characteristics in influencing the innovations adoption levels of small ruminants. A total of 120 small ruminant farmers were selected for the study using simple random sampling, and questionnaires and personal observations employed for the data collection. Twelve communities were randomly selected from four Ministry of Food and Agriculture operational zones. Data were analyzed using SPSS computer software package and descriptive statistics computed based on the data. Cross tabulation and other test statistics were used to determine the relationship between adoption levels and the variables studied. The findings show that, socio-economic characteristics such as extension contacts and credit access showed significance with respect to adoption of most of the innovations. Therefore, if adoption level is to be enhanced, attention should be focused more on training of more agriculture extension agents (AEAs) to increase their number in the area, as well as making affordable credit available and accessible to the farmers to expand their farms.