Abstract:
Soybean is one of the most important pulse crops categorized under oil crop. Ethiopia has an
enormous potential for production of pulse crops in general and soybean in particular and it is
also among the most important export crops. Despite the high production potential and the
economic importance of the crop, soybean producers particularly small scale farmers did not
economically benefited significant amount from its production. as such Low production and
productivity, which is mainly associated with perception of farmers on improved technologies
and poor marketing system. To this end, the objectives of this study were: to examine and
document the experience of perception farmers on improved soybean varieties, analyse the
determining factors that affect the perception of improved soybean production and assess the
perception of farmers about improved soybean crop. Two stage sampling procedure were
followed to select rural kebeles and households for the study. Four rural kebeles were selected
purposively and 120 household heads were selected randomly using probability proportional to
size sampling. Semi-Structured interview schedule were developed, pre-tested and used for
collecting the essential quantitative data for the study from the sampled households. Focus group
discussions on soybean production and marketing were used to generate qualitative data. The
result of the study indicated that about 51.7% of the sample respondents were positive perception
of the improved soybean varieties, while 48.3 % negative perceptions. The focuses of the study
were on the importance of demographic, social and institutional factors that affect the perception
of improved soybean varieties in Bako areas. Therefore, policy and development interventions
should give emphasis to improvement of such institutional support system so as to achieve wider
perception increased productivity and income to small scale farmers. |
