A stall-feeding management for improved cattle in semiarid central Tanzania: factors influencing adoption

This study's objectives were to determine factors influencing smallholder farmers' adoption of a stall-feeding management system for improved dairy cattle in semiarid Tanzania and other related technology packages. Heckman's two-stage procedure was used to determine factors influencing participation in the project and the adoption of recommended management practices. Stall-feeding technology is particularly attractive to these households with fewer resources particularly those that are female headed. Wealthier farmers, as measured by area of land cultivated, are less likely to adopt the stall-feeding technology. Household labour is found to be important in determining the degree to which the technology and associated management practices were adopted. Age of the household head has a positive impact on the size of the intensive feed gardens. Different measures of extension-related contact are significant in influencing the potential for adopting stall-fed technology, the number of stair-fed cattle kept, the probability of growing water melons, and the size of intensive feed gardens. The implications are that research and extension messages with reference to the stall-feeding management system need to be targeted to specific types of households (e.g., female farmers, those with children to provide labor, and limited resource farms). This supports the notion that technology development and dissemination need to be sensitive not only to the characteristics of the biophysical environment but also to the socioeconomic environment, which is often neglected. The study also demonstrates that in the poorer parts of the world where land is very limited, a strategy for improving ecological sustainability can be linked closely to one for increasing agricultural productivity. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.