| dc.description.abstract | Sweetpotato (Ipomea batatas) (L) Lam is a root crop and the seventh most important food crop after wheat, rice, maize, potato, barley and cassava in Sub- Saharan Africa and in Kenya. It is rich in carbohydrate offering a cheap source of energy and vitamins for health and nutritional benefits especially orange fleshed varieties. Improved sweetpotato varieties were disseminated by different institutions and organization in Migori County from 2014 to avail clean planting vines for farming communities, but studies revealed that their adoption is still low. The general objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of information access on adoption of improved sweetpotato varieties in Migori County. Specific objectives were, to establish information access on production and marketing pathways, to determine socioeconomic factors influencing information access on improved sweetpotato varieties, and to evaluate drivers which influence adoption of improved sweetpotato varieties. The study was carried out in Migori County. The design of the study adopted was household survey on a sample size of 146 farmers and 12 key informants. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 8subcounties in Migori County. Purposive sampling procedure was used to identify 4 sub counties selected for the study, which were Suna East, Suna West, Kuria East and Kuria West which mainly produced sweetpotato. Farmers from the four sub counties were subjected to simple random sampling. Semi -structured questionnaires and interview schedule were used as instruments for data collection to sampled farmers and key informants. Data collected was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences version 20 to generate descriptive and inferential statistics. Logit model was used to establish the relationship between the study variables. The results showed that in demographic characteristic, males 61.5%, female 38.5%, males were more than females, with education levels at primary being 59.4%. Sweetpotato was produced at 20% on average land of 2acres. Information disseminated to farmers on production, preferred were high yields scored 87.0%,vitamin A content 82.0% and early maturity 78%. The significant variables which had influence on households to adopt improved sweetpotato varieties were large farm size above two acres (P≤ 0.02) practice of sweetpotato production (P ≤ 0.05), sources of information from Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, Ministry of Agriculture, farmers field days, (P≤ 0.05). In conclusion, sources information was associated with adoption of improved sweetpotato varieties. The study recommends that linkages be strengthened between Research institutions and Agricultural Extension in developing and disseminating integrated sweetpotato technologies to farmers to scale out adoption. | en_US |
