Abstract:
This study assessed farmers’ awareness of improve yam technologies, adoption of the
technologies and constraints to adoption. The major yam producing zones in Meme (Kumba and
Mbonge) were selected. Kumba-Mbeng and Buea-Road (Kumba) and Mbalangi and Mile 40
(Mbonge) were purposively chosen on the criteria of quantity of yams produced, security and
accessibility. Through snowball sampling technique, a sample of 90 farmers was constituted. A
questionnaire was used for data collection and collected data analyzed using SPSS software and
Microsoft Excel. The results revealed that 53.3% of farmers were aware of improve yam
production technologies. Organic manure was the most known technology (62.5%) while the
least known was the use of ropes as vine support (20.8%). Organic manure was the most adopted
technology (60.5%) while the yam minisett was the least adopted technology (13.1%). The main
constraints to adoption were a lack of follow-up by extension agencies and insufficient
information to convince farmers. Despite poor acquisition and practice of these technologies,
extension agencies should be encouraged to increase the level of communication and
implementation by farmers.
|
