Personal and Socio-Economic Factors Affecting the Adoption of Sweet Potato Production Technology by Farmers in South-East Zone of Nigeria

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L) Lam) is a very important staple carbohydrate food in sub-saharan Africa, and reputed for its capacity to tolerate marginal environments as well as high energy-fixing efficiency to produce high dry matter at a short period of time. It produces much dry matter per unit of time and contains high levels of vitamins A and C. Apart from the roots, the young leaves serve as green vegetable for man whereas the leaves and vines are cherished as fodder and hay by livestock. Sweet potato production technologies have been developed by the National Root Crops Research Institute, (NRCR) Umudike, and transferred to farmers in Nigeria in conjunction with state Agricultural Development Programmes. This study assessed the levels of awareness and adoption of the sweet potato technology disseminated by NRCRI to farmers and also determined the factors affecting the adoption of the technology. The multistage sampling technique was used in selecting the respondents using structured interview schedule as instrument. Data were collected from 270 respondents. The findings showed that the levels of awareness and adoption of the technologies were high. Age, education, riming experience, household size and farm size were factors that significantly influenced adoption, while the constraining factors to increased adoption of the technology were grouped into production complexity problems, economic problems, poor technical information and pathological problems. The study recommended the intensification of the dissemination of rapid vine multiplication techniques like the 2-node vine cutting technique, and rapid transfer of the integrated pest management technology on sweetpotato.Key words: Technology adoption, sweet potato, Ipomoea batata