Abstract:
Food barley is one of stable food populated and its production is widely practiced by farmers in
different highlands of Ethiopia. Improving its production is believed to be one of the most crucial
strategies for food security in the countries. Food barley is one of populated staple food and
produced in the district, adoption of improved food barley technology is not widely practiced
among small holder farmers. The aim of this research was to assess determinants of the adoption
of improved food barley technology by small-holder farmers in the study area. Specifically to
assess current practices and to examine perception of farmers toward adoption of improved food
barley technology, and to analyze factor affecting adoption of improved food barley technology
in the study area. This study used a three stage sampling procedure in which purposive selection
of district and Kebeles were selected by using random sampling. Stratified sampling was
employed to identify adopters and non-adopters and simple random sampling was used to select
respondents. The study is based on primary data collected from 142 sample selected through
interview schedule assisted survey questionnaire.. The data has been analyzed by descriptive
statistics, inferential statistics and econometric model (binary logistic regression) using SPSS
software. Qualitative data were used to substantiate the responses of questionnaire. Farmers are
not adopting as recommended extension package and associated perception they had to ward
improved food barley technology significantly influenced their decision to adopt in the study
area. The findings of the study reveal that adoption of improved food barley technology is
significantly influenced by sex of household head, farm size, farm experiences, educational level,
livestock ownership, family size, access to credit, access to training, extension contact,
perception on yield capacity, improved seed availability, attending demonstration, off-farm
income. The binary logit analysis showed education, farm experience, credit, extension contact,
training participation and timely availability of improved seed, were significant factors
determining adoption of improved food barley in the study area. In general, the study concluded
that adoption decisions were driven by a host of demographic, psychological and socio economic institutional, factors.
