Determinants Of Farmers’ Adoption Of Alternate Wet And Dry Techniques In Lowland Rice Production In Ghana, Uganda And Cameroon For Climate Smart Agriculture

Lowland rice production has been introduced in many African countries because it more than double yields from upland. Irrigated lowland rice production generates Green House Gas (GHG) emissions roughly four times the GHG emissions per ton of crop as wheat or maize, mostly in form of methane and nitrous oxide. Alternate Wet and Dry (AWD) as a water management was introduced as a system to reduce GHG, however what factors affects the use of Alternate Wet and Dry Technique? A simple random sampling technique was used to select 120, 150 and 300 rice farmers from irrigation schemes in (Tema) Ghana, (Doho) Uganda and (Ndop) Cameroon respectively. Data were collected on their socio-economic characteristics, use of Alternate Wet and Dry Irrigation and knowledge of AWD for climate smart agriculture. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics and probit regression was used as an inferential statistics to analyze the factors influencing the respondents’ adoption of Alternate Wet and Dry technique. The results show that majority of farmers were female and male, married, with mean age of 50 and 45.6; having mean farm size of 0.4 and 0.25ha in Ghana and Uganda respectively. In Cameroon, majority of farmers were male, married, with mean age of 45years; having mean farm size of 1ha. Significant determinants of the use of Alternate Wet and Dry technique across the countries were knowledge of the production technique, contact with extension, farm size, farming experience, awareness of climate smart practices, timeliness of operations, sources of information and implementation accuracy of technology. These significant variables have implication for reductions of GHG emissions from lowland rice production and points out the important roles of extension and rural advisory services in promoting effective adoption of climate smart agricultural innovations for sustainable food security and safer environment for all.