Adoption of Aflatoxin Smart Technologies among Smallholder Maize Farmers in Kongwa & Namtumbo Districts

Abstract

Aims: The study was designed to evaluate adoption of aflatoxin smart technologies among maize farmers. Study Design: Cross sectional research design was used involving 344 respondents (300 maize farmers and 44 key informants). Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Kongwa district in Dodoma region and Namtumbo district in Ruvuma region of Tanzania. Methodology: A survey questionnaire with open and closed ended questions was used to collect both quantitative from farmers while Key informant interview was conducted with traders, agricultural extension officers and input suppliers. The study used both descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse collected data, whereby mean, standard deviations, minimum and maximum were used to describe maize farmers in relation to adoption of aflatoxin smart technologies. Multinomial regression model was used to determine factors influencing adoption of aflatoxin smart technologies. Results: Majority of maize farmers had low awareness level on aflatoxin. Low awareness level hindered the use of aflatoxin smart technologies. Moreover, results of multinomial logistic regression showed that farmer’s experience on maize cultivations, household size, awareness on aflatoxin, and location of maize farmer, gender and access to credits were significant factors affecting the adoption of aflatoxin smart technologies and its intensities at P = .05. Conclusion: It was concluded that with regard to how serious the problem of aflatoxin is, there is a need of high efforts of raising awareness to maize farmers to neutralize the spread of contaminations caused by careless farm practices. With the help of study’s findings, it was recommended that there is a need to wide spread information on aflatoxin aiming to raise awareness of the maize farmers and increase physical access of aflatoxin smart technologies.