| dc.description.abstract | This study was carried out in Kajara County, Ntungamo District aimed at identifying and
characterising the existing organic farming practices used by smallholder farmers; establishing
the socio-economic and institutional factors influencing adoption of organic farming
practices in the banana cropping system.
To achieve the above objectives systematic and purposive sampling the study adopted a cross
sectional research design whereby data was collected from 357 farmers through household
surveys using questionnaires, and key informant interviews. Quantitative data was analysed
with the help of SPSS, whereby descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages
were determined, chi-square tests were run to examine whether there were significant differences
between adopters and non-adopters in relation to the adoption of organic farming practices.
Study findings show that, mulching was highly organic farming practice employed followed
by weed management, use of farmyard manure, pest management, use of crop residues and
use of cover crops as the least utilised practice; chi-square test results revealed that there were
significant differences between adopters and non-adopters with regard to, age of the household
head, gender , household size, years of farming experience, ownership of land, off-farm
income, number of extension contacts, membership to farmer groups and access to credit significantly
influenced the use of organic farming practices. On the other hand, there were no
significant differences between adopters and non-adopters of organic farming practices concerning
the education level and marital status thus did not influence the rate of adoption.
Therefore, this study recommends interventions that enhance farmers’ awareness through agricultural
advisory services with a focus on organic farming practices, increased access to
credit facilities, and secure land tenure. | en_US |
