Publication: Adoption and Dis-Adoption of Sustainable Agriculture: A Case of Farmers’ Innovations and Integrated Fruit Fly Management in Kenya
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2021-04-09
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Abstract
The invasive fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis poses a major threat to the production and trade of
mango in sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers devise different innovations to manage the pest in an attempt
to minimize yield loss and production costs while maximizing revenues. Using survey data obtained
from Embu County, Kenya, we analyzed farmers’ knowledge and perception as regards the invasive
fruit fly, their innovations for the management of the pest, and the determinants of their adoption
and dis-adoption decisions of recently developed and promoted integrated pest management (IPM)
technologies for suppression of the pest. The results show that farmers consider fruit flies as a major
threat to mango production (99%) and primarily depend on pesticides (90%) for the management
of the pest. Some farmers (35%) however use indigenous methods to manage the pest. Though
farmers possess good knowledge of different IPM strategies, uptake is relatively low. The regression
estimates show that continued use of IPM is positively associated with the gender and education of
the household head, size of a mango orchard, knowledge on mango pests, training, contact with an
extension officer, and use of at least one non-pesticide practice for fruit fly management, while IPM
dis-adoption was negatively correlated with the size of the mango orchard, practice score and use of
indigenous innovations for fruit fly management. We recommend enhancing farmer0
s knowledge
through increased access to training programs and extension services for enhanced adoption of
sustainable management practices for B. dorsalis.
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Keywords: fruit flies, integrated pest management, farmers’ innovations, mango, Kenya