IMPACTS OF RUST-RESISTANT WHEAT TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION ON THE WHEAT PRODUCTIVITY: THE CASE OF LANFURO DISTRICT, SILTE ZONE, CENTRAL ETHIOPIA.

ABSTRACT Wheat rust disease is one of the major wheat production problems in Ethiopia.The goal of this study was to evaluate the factors that influence rust resistant wheat technology adoption, current status and its impact on household productivity in the lanfuro district. Data were gathered from both primary and secondary sources. A multi-stage sample technique was employed to identify 320 wheat producers from lanfuro Woreda. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics as well as an econometric model. The binary logistic regression model was used to examine the factors influencing rust resistant wheat technology adoption, key informant and focus group discussions used to gather current status of rust resistant wheat technology adoption and additional data and the PSM approach was employed to estimate the effect of rust resistant wheat technology adoption on household productivity. The logistic regression model results revealed that gender, education level, access to credit, firm size, frequency of extension contact, training participation, total livestock unit, nonfarm income and members of farmers cooperative in the household had a positive and significant influence on rust resistant wheat technology adoption, whereas age had a negative and significant influence on rust resistant wheat technology adoption. According to the results of the propensity score matching method, adopters of rust resistant wheat technology generated more productivity (12.6 quintal) per hectare than nonadopters. This indicates that adoption of rust resistant wheat technology has a positive contribution to households' productivity. Therefore, government and concerned bodies should better give due attention to the development, dissemination, and scaling up of adoption of rust resistant wheat technology by initiating to participate in training, members of farmers cooperative, use of credit and subsidise rust resistant wheat for grower household.