Review on Adoption of Improved Soya Bean Technologies: Empirical Evidence from Ethiopia

Soybean is a legume crop grown in the tropical, subtropical, and temperate climates which are used for food and animal feed. However, the production and productivity of soybean is low and improvement in production and productivity depends on the extent to which a household has applied the recommended production technologies. The review was aimed to identify the determinants of adoption and intensity of improved soybean varieties to generate information that helps to understand and evaluate the key challenges in Ethiopia. The review showed that sex of household, age of household head, education, farm experience, participation in training, and extension service affect the adoption of improved soya bean varieties positively and significantly while the distance to the nearest market affects adoption of improved soya bean varieties negatively and significantly. On the other hand, the intensity of adoption was affected by age, soya bean farm experience, participation in training, and size of livestock holding. Most of the studies reviewed in this paper indicated that sex has a significant positive impact on the adoption of improved soya bean varieties. However, the participation of female households in the adoption process indicated that 15% of female-headed households and dominated by 85% of male household heads. Therefore, to improve the adoption of modern agricultural technologies like improved soya beans the following recommendations are forwarded. Female-headed households should get emphasis in all activities of the promotion of new technologies. On the other hand, evidences showed that the huge oil factories in Ethiopia like W. A and BK are using soya bean as a major input to their production. Consequently, those industries demanding a higher amount of soya bean as an input and they are creating a backward linkage to smallholder soya bean producer farmers. For instance, W.A's edible oil factory alone needs 20,000 hectares of land to run the business and 500,000 quintals of soya bean requires per year. Therefore, it can improve smallholder farmers' livelihood by creating market opportunities to supply their products directly to factories. Thus, the promotion of new soya bean varieties, strong linkage between farmers and factories and comprehensive studies on the adoption and impact of soya bean should get attention from the regional and federal government of Ethiopia. Keywords: Adoption; Determinate, improved soya bean; Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/14-6-01 Publication date: April 30 th 2023