An Assessment of Cultural Factors and Adoption of New Green Gram Varieties by Famers in Soroti District

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between cultural factors (education of the households (HH) head, religion of HH, eating habits, and perceived/cultural commercial crops) and adoption of new green gram varieties taking Soroti in Uganda as district study. A cross sectional design   adopting both qualitative and quantitative approaches was utilized. From a population of 32,432 farmers, a sample of 395 respondents was randomly selected and this yielded a response rate of 65%. After taking cared of validity and reliability of instruments, data was collected using structured questionnaires and interview guide. Two data analysis computer packages included; SPSS version 22 and NVIVO11.  The study results revealed that there is a significant negative relationship between cultural factors and adoption of new green gram varieties in Soroti district which was indicated by correlation coefficient (r = -.131, p<0.05).  In addition, the regression analysis results show that the cultural factors explain 1.7% of the variation in adoption of green gram by farmers in Soroti district (R2=0.017).  The regression model was significant at 5% (with the constant of 4.2; p<0.001 and the coefficient for cultural factors of -0.447, p<0.05).  Results from the item mean analysis of cultural factors reveal that religion does not interfere with neither adoption of new green gram varieties nor use of farming practices, use of fertilizers and pesticides. It was revealed that local green gram varieties are perceived to be the most demanded and that green gram has been considered overtime as a major source of income. The results further indicated that the more farmers value their cultural beliefs on local green gram varieties, the less the new varieties will be adopted. The study recommends that research institutions promoting the new green gram varieties should liaise with local government officials and churches leaders to sensitize more about the new varieties. Evidence based of the benefits of the new varieties should be explained to farmers through demo plots or export market information.