Factors Affecting Adoption of Pro-Vitamin A Orange Maize in Zaka District, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Biofortified vitamin A “orange” maize can help address the adverse health effects of vitamin A deficiency. The use of pro-vitamin A orange maize varieties is an important opportunity for pluging nutritional deficiencies in Zimbabwe. Maize is the stable food of Zimbabwe and it is believed that bio-fortified crops improve malnutrition in developing countries, such as Zimbabwe. The study aimed at determining the factors affecting the adoption of pro-vitamin A orange maize in smallholder farmer communities of Zaka district in Masvingo province. A quantitative research design was adopted using simple random sampling technique in selecting 352 households and questionnaires were administered during the 2020 cropping season in the one district with two wards. A probit regression model was used to determine the probability of adopting pro-vitamin A maize in Zaka district in Masvingo province. Empirical results indicated that adoption was influenced by only eight variables had significant coefficients at 1%, 5% and 10% significance levels, which are years of growing maize, area under maize, demo plots, access to credit, seed availability, irrigation, distance to market and awareness. The for the number of years of growing maize was also highly significantly different from zero but it was negative implying that the farmers with less years of growing maize had a lower preference for pro-vitamin A orange maize. Gender, age, family size, price and years of schooling were not significant. Results obtained indicate that most of the farmers indicated that extension workers form a major link between farmers and research institutes, centres, or breeders, helping farmers to adopt pro-vitamin A orange maize varieties. Therefore, the government and other stakeholders should encourage access to extension agents to enhance dissemination of pro-vitamin A maize varieties among the farmers through seminars, workshops, trainings and relevant demonstration activities. There is need to increase the demand of pro-vitamin A maize through sensitization of consumers on both the nutritional and economic benefits of these varieties.