Adoption and Dis-Adoption of Sustainable Agriculture: A Case of Farmers’ Innovations and Integrated Fruit Fly Management in Kenya
Charity M. Wangithi,
Beatrice Muriithi and
Raphael Belmin
Additional contact information
Charity M. Wangithi: International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), P.O. Box 30772-00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Raphael Belmin: Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), UPR HortSys, F-34398 Montpellier, France
Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-18
Abstract:
The invasive fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis poses a major threat to the production and trade of mango in sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers devise different innovations to manage the pest in an attempt to minimize yield loss and production costs while maximizing revenues. Using survey data obtained from Embu County, Kenya, we analyzed farmers’ knowledge and perception as regards the invasive fruit fly, their innovations for the management of the pest, and the determinants of their adoption and dis-adoption decisions of recently developed and promoted integrated pest management (IPM) technologies for suppression of the pest. The results show that farmers consider fruit flies as a major threat to mango production (99%) and primarily depend on pesticides (90%) for the management of the pest. Some farmers (35%) however use indigenous methods to manage the pest. Though farmers possess good knowledge of different IPM strategies, uptake is relatively low. The regression estimates show that continued use of IPM is positively associated with the gender and education of the household head, size of a mango orchard, knowledge on mango pests, training, contact with an extension officer, and use of at least one non-pesticide practice for fruit fly management, while IPM dis-adoption was negatively correlated with the size of the mango orchard, practice score and use of indigenous innovations for fruit fly management. We recommend enhancing farmer′s knowledge through increased access to training programs and extension services for enhanced adoption of sustainable management practices for B. dorsalis.
Keywords: fruit flies; integrated pest management; farmers’ innovations; mango; Kenya (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:11:y:2021:i:4:p:338-:d:533077
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