FACTORS AFFECTING ADOPTION OF IMPROVED MAIZE SEED AND FERTILIZER IN NORTHERN TANZANIA

This study quantifies the socioeconomic factors that affect adoption o f improved maize seed and chemical fertiliser by producers in Tanzania . A bootstrapped simultaneous equation Tobit model was used to analyse data obtained from a survey of 246 farmers in Northern Tanzania. The adoption of improved maize seed was positively affected by nitrogen us e per hectare, farm size, farmer education attainment level, and visit s by extension agents. Fertiliser adoption,vas positively related to t he area planted with improved seed. Larger fat-ins tended to use ferti liser less intensively than smaller farms. Results confirm the importa nce of recognising the heterogeneity of the farming population not onl y in terms of differences in the biophysical conditions but also in th e socioeconomic, environmental conditions under which they operate. Th is has important implications in terms of developing different technol ogies and support systems that take such variation into account. Tile results also confirm the importance of focusing on producer education as a component in influencing technology and in accepting the concept of a technology ladder in designing technological packages and dissemi nating extension messages.