Factors Affecting Adoption of Climate-Smart Agricultural Technologies: Evidence fromNandiCounty,Kenya

Abstract

Adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies (CSAT) such as Biogas production, silage making, agro-forestry and water conservation help in improving smallholder production. However, in rural areas of Nandi County of Kenya, adoption of CSAT amongst smallholder dairy farmers is low. In this study, we analyze factors affect adoption of CSAT using information drawn from 350 smallholder dairy farmers participating in East Africa Dairy Development programme. Using ordered Logit model, we find that the intensity of adoption of CSAT is partly affected by access to extension and credit services. Specifically, we showed that farmers who had access to extension services and credit lines were more likely to adopt drought resistant crops but not biogas production, agro-forestry and silage making. Moreover, our result showed that owning a stable tenure system allows farmers to adopt technologies which require more land and takes more time like biogas production, drought crops, agroforestry, water storage and silage making. Finally, we showed that distance between a farmer’s home and farm is an important factor in adopting an agricultural technology. This effect is more pronounced amongst technologies that are heavy to transport like biogas production, water