Abstract:

The population growth, land degradation and farmer´s adoption of new agricultural techniques is multidimensional topic with plenty of inter-linkages. Ethiopia is a country with one of the most strongly supported system of agricultural extension services represented by number of development agents responsible for advising to farmers. There are identified two types of farmers – model farmers who are more often visited by advisors and provide supervision and share of experience and knowledge with following farmers. A binary logistic regression model of farmer’s status differences was developed and differences in status of farmers were described. The model of general approach of government-supported extension services system is compared to the second model: farmer’s adoption of easily accessible innovative technologies in their field. Independent variables involve a personal believe of farmers, farm system condition and the state of advisory services. The complete system fulfills the financial situation, experiences and problems. Basic descriptive statistics indicators of both models are compared by adjusted residuals resulting from a set of contingency tables. 169 structured interviews were conducted in Angacha woreda (SNNPR) according to quota sampling method and evaluated using SPSS program. Even though, there is an officially given assumption, that MFs are more innovation oriented and more proactive in new technologies implementation, there were found statistically important factors unifying these two models. Furthermore, there were plenty of other factors that show difference between MFs and FFs and more adoption oriented farmers and less adoption oriented farmers. This research is unique in targeting its base on an already functioning system of extension services and comparison with actual adoption of innovative technologies. The results can serve as a supporting material for other researchers and for governmental structures.

Keywords:

Agricultural extension services, model farmer, following farmer, implementation, innovative techniques.