Analysis of agricultural technology adoption: the use of improved maize seeds and its determinants in Ethiopia, evidence from Eastern Amhara

Agriculture is the major source of income and employment creation for majority of least developed countries. Ethiopia as one of least developed countries of sub-Saharan Africa, majority of its citizen’s livelihood is predominantly dependent on agricultural products, more specifically on the production of cereal crops (Alemayehu et al. in Adv Crop Sci Technol 6(1):1–9, 2018). This study is conducted to identify the determinants of household to adopt and use improved maize seed, one of highly cultivated cereal crops in Eastern Amhara of Ethiopia. The data used in this study are secondary data collected by the agriculture office of Amhara regional state from 3864 household farmers living in the study area in 2022 fiscal year. To address the objective of the study, both descriptive and econometric methods of data analysis are applied. Because of the binary nature of adoption to be either adaptor or non-adaptor, probit regression model is applied. The probit model result shows that being male-headed household, rural credit provision, access to irrigation and the use of fertilizers affect the tendency of adopting improved maize seeds are positively related, while total arable land size owned by farmers negatively affects adoption status. Based on this result, the researcher recommends that government and other institutions should be invited to facilitate and directly involve in providing credit, irrigation, and fertilizers in the study area.