INFORMATION DISSEMINATION STRATEGIES AND ITS EFFECT ON ADOPTION OF UREA DEEP PLACEMENT TECHNOLOGY UNDER RICE CULTIV ATION AT IRRIGATION SCHEMES IN NORTHERN REGION

Abstract

Smallholder farmers across major irrigation schemes in Northern Ghana especially in Golinga and Bontanga have successfully adopted the Urea Deep Placement (UDP) technology introduced some four years ago by the Feed the Future USAID Ghana Agriculture Technology Transfer (A IT) project. This is a great complement for the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) inventors of the technology and could help Ghana to boost her rice production if pragmatic measures are taken by the ministry to upscale it. This study sought to find out the role of information dissemination methods in the adoption of the UDP. Close and open-ended questionnaires and personal interviews were used in collecting data from 200 irrigated rice farmers for this study. The study employed descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequencies, mean, cross-tabulation and chi-square text in analyzing the data. The research found out that A) 81 percent of the respondents were male while only 19 percent were female. B) All the three methods played a complementary role to achieve the dissemination process with some 89 out of the 200 respondents indicating that radio, video shows and demonstration help in creating awareness, knowledge acquisition and practice. C) The chi-square test (X2 =11.637 p~0.040) shows the between usage of UDP technology and environmental friendliness of UDP Technology adoption by respondents, show a significance relationship between the two variables. The study recommends among others things, that it will be important for the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) as inventors of the technology to develop a transplanter to help reduce the labour cost of farmers. The organization should also design simple equipment that help will apply the Urea Super Granules (USG) to alleviate the stress in USG deep placement as well as cost in this process.