FACTORS AFFECTING ADOPTION OF IMPROVED POTATO VARIETIES IN RASUWA DISTRICT, NEPAL
ABSTRACT
The research was conducted from February to July 2023 to assess the factors affecting the adoption of improved potato varieties in the Rasuwa district. Altogether 60 samples were taken by simple random sampling technique for the study which includes 30 from each Kalika and Gosaikunda rural municipalities. A household survey, focus group discussion, and key informant interview were used to collect the primary information while secondary information was collected by reviewing different relevant publications. Data were analyzed using statistical tools such as Ms Excel and SPSS. As per the study, 68.3% of the farmers in the study area use local variety i.e., Seto aalu for cultivation. Only 31.7 % of the farmers seem to use improved varieties, among which 11.7 % cultivate Kufri Jyoti, 5% use Khumal Seto 2, 8.3% cultivate cardinal, and 6.7 % use Janakdev variety for cultivation. The majority of the respondents i.e., 76.7 percent prioritized their home production seed tuber as the major source of seed. This study shows that the probability of adoption of improved varieties increases by 1.97 times with an increase in number of training, and the probability of adoption goes up by 1.14 times with an increase in 1 year of experience. Coming to the effect of access to chemical fertilizer, the adoption of improved varieties increases by 12.59 times with a unit increase in accessibility to chemical fertilizers. Farmers using formal sources for potato seeds are 34.65 times more likely to adopt improved potato varieties.