Abstract:
Wheat row planting is the main agronomic practices supposed to increase wheat yield. Even though wheat is popularly consumed Cereal in Ethiopia, productivity is reported to be low. Consequently, the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture together with its partners introduced the provision of extension service of row planting with the application of recommended agricultural inputs in recent years to improve wheat productivity. This research was conducted in Ambo District, west showa Zone, Oromiya, Ethiopia, to identify the factors affecting adoption of row planting technology and its impact on wheat productivity. To achieve these objectives, Out of a total of 33 rural kebeles, 3 were selected for the study using multi-stage sampling technique which includes purposive, stratified and random sampling technique. The primary data was gathered from 210 sample households among whom 100 participated and 110 did not participated in row planting technology. Descriptive, inferential and econometric data analyses were executed. The logistic regression applied to estimate factors affecting participation in row planting technology revealed that age, livestock holding, family size, land owned, education level, extension contact, distance from home, access to mass media, improved seed,and access to credit services, Perception toward Row planting wheat technology were the variables that significantly affected.To analyze the impact of row planting technology on wheat productivity, PSM method was applied. Radius matching with band width of 0.5 was the matching algorithm used. The quality of covariate balancing was checked using pseudo R2, mean bias and t-test. Finally, from the result of the propensity score matching the average treatment effects on the treated (ATT) estimated result showed that technology adaptor smallholder farmers got with an average of 32.21 quintal of wheat productivity per hectare while the matched control group had an average productivity of 25.85qt/ha.This shows participating in wheat row planting increases the productivity of wheat by an average of 5.7qt/ha (17% more productivity gain)quintals yield-per-hectare for adopters as compared to non-adopters and this result is statistically significant. Sensitivity analysis was done and the estimated ATT was insensitive to unobserved bias up to 200%. Therefore, the policy makers and concerned bodies need give attention to strength the policy of education, institutional factors and socio-economic, demographic, technological variables that are significant for adopting row planting technology
