Attitudes and Practices on the Adoption of Conservation Agriculture among Smallholder Farmers in Bahi District

Abstract

Conservation Agriculture (CA) has gained prominence worldwide, with its principles including minimum soil disturbance, maintaining soil cover and crop rotation. However, in some areas, the adoption is still low. Therefore, this study explored smallholder farmers’ attitudes and practices on the adoption of CA at Msisi, Babayu, Zanka and Mundemu wards in Bahi district. The study sample size was 379 respondents, obtained using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Also, the purposive sampling technique was used to select agricultural field officers, ward executive officers and village chairpersons as key informants. A structured survey through questionnaires was used to collect data from smallholder farmers, and in-depth interviews through checklist were used to collect data from key informants. A cross-tabulation with a Chi-square test (at the 5% level of significance) was used to test the relationship between sex and education level of respondents to the adoption of CA.  Quantitative data were analysed using IBM-SPSS statistics version 25 computer programme in which descriptive statistics (mean, minimum, maximum, frequency and percentage) were analysed. Also, thematic analysis was used for qualitative data. The study found that respondents had neutral attitude, indicated by mean scores between 2.5 to 3.4. The study further revealed that only 17.4% of the respondents practice CA whereby minimum soil disturbance and maintaining soil cover are commonly used. Maize, millet and groundnut claimed to perform better under CA. Moreover, the study highlights pests, wild bird attacks, and erratic rainfall patterns as major challenges smallholder farmers encountered during CA implementation. The study recommends that local government through agricultural extension officers and agricultural field officers in collaboration with non-government organization should continue with the provision of knowledge about CA benefits to farmers to encourage its implementation.