Utilizing a sub-sector characteristics approach to determining adoption of new agricultural technologies: The case of improved sorghum varieties in the Lake Zone, Tanzania

In low-income countries adoption of improved agricultural technologies has been low because most of them are incompatible with the production environments facing small scale farmers. Institutionalization of the Farming Systems Approach in the national agricultural research systems has improved technology targeting. Nevertheless, post-harvest constraints have not been adequately addressed. This study applied a sub-sector characteristic approach to evaluate the performance of sorghum varieties in the Lake Zone of Tanzania. The objective was to determine the adoption of improved sorghum varieties by integrating the production and consumption characteristics preferred by farmers and consumers. Data used in this study were collected from on-farm trials implemented in the Lake Zone Tanzania between 2003 and 2004. Consumer preference and adoption surveys were implemented in the Lake Zone between May and September 2004. Adaptability and farmer preference analyses were used to evaluate the performance of five sorghum varieties planted by 34 farmers in low and medium rainfall zones. Consumer preferences were elicited from food panel experiments in which 231 consumers drawn from rural and urban areas participated. To predict adoption of the improved varieties, 100 sorghum farmers from two villages were interviewed. Multiple linear regression and Tobit models were applied to evaluate variety performance across different production environments. Conjoint analysis and logistic preference ranking analysis techniques were used to determine farmer and consumer preference for sorghum varieties and sorghum food respectively. An ordered probit model was applied to predict adoption of the sorghum varieties. The study showed that improved sorghum varieties were not superior to local varieties across all production environments. However, two of the improved varieties were preferred to a greater extent by farmers and consumers than the local varieties. The study concluded that application of a sub-sector approach in the development of sorghum varieties would enhance acceptability of improved varieties and hence encourage higher adoption rates.