Comparison of Adoption of Small Plot Adoption Technique (SPAT) Between Men and Women Farmers

Abstract

There have been arguments as to whether men or women farmers are better adopters of agricultural innovations. While some studies show that men are better adopters, other studies show that women are better adopter, and others show that no group is better than the other . The study was, therefore, conducted to compare the participation of men and women farmers in Small Plot Adoption Technique (SPAT) and their level of adoption of technologies disseminated through the technique with special reference to men’s participation in SPAT- yam based and women’s participation in SPAT -cassava based. To obtain a representative sample, the stratified random sampling technique was used. The state was divided into the three ADP zones or strata. The ADP zones were further stratified into extension blocks and finally cells. Three extension blocks were randomly selected from each of the three ADP zones using the balloting with replacement method. Hence, a total of 9 extension blocks were selected. The extension blocks were further stratified into cells, and two cells were randomly selected from each of the nine blocks giving a total of eighteen cells. The cells were further stratified  into male and female farmers. Ten farmers were selected from each cell, which gave a sample size of 180 farmers (116 men and 64 women). The data collected was analyzed using both descriptive (means and percentages) and inferential (the student t-test ) statistics.  The student t-test for significance of difference  between means was used to determine whether men and women farmers differed significantly in their adoption levels . The study found that women participated more actively than men farmers. 34% of the male farmers never participated/adopted the technology, while 31% participated/adopted the technology for a while and stopped; only 34 of the men continuously adopted the technology. But all the women in the sample participated  and adopted the technology continuously. The difference between the mean adoption scores of the men and women farmers was found to be very significant  at 1%  level (P≤0.01) in favour of women. The null hypothesis, which stated that there is no significant difference between the mean SPAT adoption scores of men and women farmers was rejected, while the alternative hypothesis was accepted.