Towards a more situation appropriate and responsive extension approach for Ethiopia

This paper investigates the influence of some selected personal, environmental and intervening factors on the adoption behaviour of dairy producers with the object of identifying the most important causes of behaviour and thus finding a more purposeful and effective way of changing the adoption behaviour. 200 farmers were randomly drawn form a total of about 430 standing members of Ada Liben Woreda Dairy And Dairy Products Marketing Association (ALWDADPMA) in Debrezeit, Ethiopia. In the analysis of data the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression methods were employed to identify the most important determinants associated with behavioural change The results indicate that, in general, the intervening variables tend to have the highest prediction value. They were found to explain 68.3 percent and 80.9 percent of the variance of behaviour associated with the practice adoption and production efficiency, while the independent variables explained only 17.8 percent and 19.3 percent of the variation, respectively. The contribution of independent variables appears substantial only when their indirect effect (effect through intervening variables) is considered. SA Jnl. Agric. Ext. Vol 33 2004: 52-6