Adoption and Cost Benefit Analysis of Sesame Technology in Drought Prone Areas of Ethiopia: Implication for Sustainable Commercialization

This article documents the determinants of household-level of adoption and cost benefit analysis based on the data collected in 2014 G.C from 140 randomly -selected households in drought prone areas of Ethiopia namely from West Herreghe Zone, Meisso district. Data for the study was obtained from formal household questionnaire survey, key informant discussion and direct observation of farmers fields. .In addition, secondary data were collected from relevant sources such as different research institute, zonal and wereda bureau of agriculture . In order to describe and compare different categories of the sample units with respect to the desired characteristics mean, standard deviation and percentage were used. Furthermore, chi-square test and an independent sample t-test were used to identify variables that vary significantly between adopters and non-adopter.Logistic regression (binary logit) analysis was used to identify the relative importance of the various factors associated with adoption of improved sesame technologies. The economic analysis using the partial budgeting method and price sensitivity analysis were also used to ascertain the profitability of the adopted improved sesame technologies. The result of the study indicated that about 42.9% of the sample respondents were adopters of the improved sesame technologies ,while 57.1 % non- adopters. Results of the logistic regression analysis indicate that among 18, identified explanatory variables 9, of them significantly influenced adoption of improved sesame technologies. Education,sex, family labor supply, livestock onwership,total farm income earned ,perception on varieties attributes, farmer to farmers knowledge sharing and years experience in sesame crop production are associated singificantly and positively with adoption of improved sesame technologies.whereas,distance from market center is associated significantly but negatively. The partial budget results also indicate that improved sesame technology was highly profitable compared to local cultivars .The overall finding of the study underlined the high importance of institutional support in the areas of extension service to insist farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing, credit and market to enhance adoption of improved sesame technology. There is also need to consider farmers’ views during the new technology development, evaluation and dissemination process. Moreover, due attention and policy consideration has to be given by government to those significant variables which have a potential impact in determining farmer’s adoption decision in the study area. Keywords: Logistic regression (binary logit) analysis, seseame tecchnology adoption, Cost Benefit Analysis Sensitivity , Ethiopi