Abstract:
The study investigated the factors influencing adoption of improved cultivars
of macadamia (Macadamia spp.) among small-scale farmers in Embu
County, Kenya. Data was collected from a sample of 384 small-scale farmers
obtained through multistage sampling procedure in ten sub-locations. Binary
Logit model was used to determine the effect of selected institutional and
socio-economic factors on adoption of improved cultivars of macadamia. The
results revealed that education level (wald=26.160), access to extension
services (wald=6.246) and farm size (wald=4.271) had significant positive
influence on adoption of improved cultivars of macadamia while age of the
farmer (wald=5.235) and market distance (wald=5.519) had a negative
influence on the same. There is need to encourage the youth to embrace
macadamia farming and to develop smart marketing strategies to promote
adoption of improved cultivars.
