1-1550  Final.pmd


Journal of Extension Education
Vol. 27  No. 2,  2015

1-PG Scholar, 2- Asst. Professor and 3- Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture,
Vellayani, KAU.

Analyzing Technology Adoption - The Case of Kerala Home Gardens

Reeba Jacob1, Allan Thomas2 and N. Kishore Kumar3

Homegardens are traditional agroforestry system with a unique structure and function.
It is the predominant farming system in Kerala. The study was undertaken in
Thiruvananthapuram district covering a sample of 100 homegardens farmers from all the
five agro-ecological units with an aim to assess the level of adoption of selected Kerala
Agricultural University (KAU) production practices in homegardens. Results of the study
identified that majority of the farmers (63%) belonged to medium level of adoption. Adoption
quotient was worked out and compared with standard Rogers curve.  Correlation analysis
of the independent variables with the dependent variable viz., level of adoption indicated
that  age, farming experience, knowledge, evaluative perception, mass media contribution,
livestock possession and extension contribution had direct significant effect on level of
adoption of KAU production practices by homegarden farmers.

Kerala state, which accounts for a mere
1.18 per cent of the total land area of
India, accommodates 3.1 per cent of the
Indian population. The state spreads over an
area of 38,863 Km2 has a population density
of 860 people per Km2. The per capita size of
the farm holding works out to be less than
one hectare. Increased population pressure,
emerging nucleotide family structure and
decreased area under agriculture has resulted
in fragmentation of land area which makes
homegarden the ‘next generation farming
system’ unique. Intensive farming activities
are undertaken by farmers on the limited area
in order to obtain food, fuel, fodder, timber
and cash from the sale of produce.
Homegardens are traditional agroforestry
systems with complex structure and multiple
functions where there is constant interaction
and interrelation between various
components.  This type of farming system
enables the farmers to cultivate annual and

perennial crops in available limited space to
satisfy the basic home requirement and
market preferences if surplus is produced.

Ability of a country to attain the full
potential of agricultural production depends
upon the innovativeness and adoption of new
technology by the stakeholders of agriculture.
The capacity of farmers is based on the
availability of various production technologies.
A large number of need based agricultural
production technologies have been developed
by KAU. Generation, transfer and adoption of
these developed technologies is influenced by
the needs of farmers. The relevance of
generated and disseminated technologies
should be probed for further research in order
to bridge the technology gaps. Hence the
present study was undertaken with the
objective to measure the level of adoption of
KAU technologies for the production practices
in homegardens and to assess the relationship



Journal of Extension Education5464

between adoption quotient and the selected
independent variables.

METHODOLOGY

The study was conducted in
Thiruvananthapuram district owing to the wide
variability in the structure and cropping
pattern of homegarden systems in the southern
zone of Kerala which is predominantly the
erstwhile Travancore state. 20 homegarden
farmers with holding size not less than 0.1 ha
were selected through simple random sampling
from each of the 5 Agro Ecological Units (AEU)
thus making a sample size of 100.

Data were collected using a well-structured
interview cum data enumeration schedule
prepared for the purpose. A draft interview
schedule was prepared for conducting a pilot
study in a non sample area and suitable
modifications were made in the final data
enumeration schedule which was finally
administered to the homegarden farmers by
the researcher and the responses were
recorded at the time of interview.

Level of adoption of various production
practices were calculated using the general
form:

quotient of various practices. The original
numerical data was given as extend of
adoption (ei) for quantifiable data like seed
rate, pit size, spacing, quantity of fertilizers
applied etc and the recommended practice was
considered as the potentiality of adoption of
that practice(pi). A few practices were
measured in terms of different stages of
adoption. Level of adoption of each farmer was
indicated on a 15 point adoption scale. The
response categories and weighted values were
non- adoption (0), awareness (1), interest (3),
evaluation (5), trial (10) and adoption (15). For
example, if the farmer was placed in the
evaluation stage his extend of adoption (ei)
will be 5 and the potentiality of the adoption
(pi) will be the maximum possible score i.e.
15.Practices which could not be quantified
were scored dichotomously as ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ with
the maximum possible score ‘1’ for ‘Yes’ and
‘0’ for the response ‘No’. If the practice is not
followed by the farmer, the response will be
‘No’ and the extent of adoption (ei) will be ‘0’
and potentiality of adoption will be ‘1’.

After calculating the adoption quotient for
the various production practices the adopters
were categorised and compared with the
standard Rogers curve. The collected data were
scored, tabulated and analysed using different
statistical methods like mean, frequency,
percentage analysis and correlation analysis.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Study was aimed to categorise homegarden
farmers into different level of adoption viz.,
high, medium and low category of adoption.

n ei
∑ pi X 100
i=1

N
AQ=

Where,
AQ= Adoption quotient
ei = Extent of adoption of each practice
pi = Potentiality of adoption of each practice
N  = Total number of practices selected.

Different scoring procedures were
undertaken for measuring the adoption



5465Analyzing Technology Adoption - The Case of Kerala Home Gardens

The distribution of homegarden respondents
based on extent of adoption is presented in
table 1.

Table 1 revealed that majority of farmers
(63%) belong to medium category of adoption

followed by 20 per cent of farmers coming
under high category of adoption and 17 per
cent of farmers under low category of adoption

An attempt was made to categorise the
homegarden respondents to different adopter

Table 1.
Distribution of Respondents  Based on the Extent of Adoption of

Scientific Production Practices in Homegardens N=100

Sl.No. Category Class limits No. %

1. High (Mean + Standard deviation) >71.60 20 20

2. Medium (Between mean and Standard Deviation) 31.16– 71.60 63 63

3. Low (Mean – Standard Deviation) <31.16 17 17

categories as put forward by Rogers, 1982.
After identifying the level of adoption, adoption
quotient (AQ) was delineated using measures
of mean and standard deviation. The obtained
curve was compared with standard Rogers
curve. The distribution on homegarden
respondents into different adopter categories
are shown in Fig. 1.

Adopter categorisation of homegarden
respondents shown in Fig. 1 revealed that
there are no innovators in homegardens but
the percentage of early adopters (17%) is
higher than the standard Rogers curve which
was only 13.5 per cent. Percentage of early
majority is 34 per cent which is equivalent to
that of standard normal curve which points
towards the fact that 51 per cent of the
homegarden respondents are fairly adopting
KAU production technology practices. Though
the respondents coming under early majority
are less that Rogers curve i.e 29 per cent, the
percentage of laggards is 20 per cent which

should be 16 per cent according to Rogers
innovation curve. The findings indicate that
there is a need for effective and meaning full
extension advisory and service supports so
that the percentage of laggards and late
majority can be further reduced which will
invariably improve the percentage of
respondents either under early majority, early
adopter or innovators. Thus the extent of
adoption of KAU production practices can be
improved. The reason for the absence of
innovators in the overall adoption curve could
be due the extreme values assigned to the
different and multiple selected production
practices by the 100 respondents for seven
different crops.

In order to analyse the influence of
independent variables on extent of adoption
of farmers simple correlation analysis was
done. Correlation results between extent of
adoption of scientific production   practices
by homegarden respondents and the



Journal of Extension Education5466

independent variables are shown in table 2.

The results of correlation analysis which
is presented in table 2 reveals that out of 13
independent variables seven variables showed
positive and significant correlation with extend
of adoption of scientific production practices.
Variables namely age, farming experience,
knowledge, evaluative perception, mass media
contribution and livestock possession were
significantly related to extend of adoption
irrespective of crop or practices at one per cent
level of probability and extension contribution
was significant at five per cent level of

probability. Hence it is inferred that all the
seven variables mentioned above are directly
influencing the adoption of scientific
production practices or technologies in
homegardens.

Age, knowledge and farming experience
showed a positive significance to the level of
adoption. It can be inferred that as age
increases farming experience increases and
hence it directly influences the knowledge level
of the farmer. The higher level of education
shows the developed educational system in
the state and the literacy rate of people in the

** - Significant at 1 per cent level; *- Significant at 5 per cent level

Variable Independent variable r

X1 Age 0.271**

X2 Education -0.189

X3 Occupation 0.099

X4 Effective homegarden area -0.123

X5 Family size -0.035

X6 Farming experience 0.264**

X7 Rational orientation -0.099

X8 Irrigation potential 0.168

X9 Knowledge 0.516**

X10 Evaluative perception 0.426**

X11 Mass media contribution 0.295**

X12 Extension contribution 0.210*

X13 Livestock possession 0.284**

Table 2.
Correlation Results between Extent of Adoption of Scientific Production Practices by

Homegarden Respondents and the Independent Variables



5467Analyzing Technology Adoption - The Case of Kerala Home Gardens

sample. Majority of the homegarden farmers
had high level of evaluative perception which
states that farmers are following practices like
mulching, resource recycling, judicious use
of external inputs, soil and water conservation
practices, use of ITK practices, etc., in their
farm which aids in maintaining sustainability
of homegardens.

Mass media or the information support

to the farmers can increase the level of
adoption of scientific production practices.

CONCLUSION

The study which was conducted to identify
the level of adoption of KAU production
technology in homegardens revealed that 63
per cent of the farmers belong to medium
category of adoption. On categorizing and
comparing the farmers to different adopter
categories as explained by Rogers (1982) it was
found that 17 per cent of respondents fell in
the category of early adopters which was
higher than that of standard Rogers’s value
(13.5%) and 29 per cent of respondents fell
under the category of late majority that was
lower than that of standard Rogers’s value
(34%). The findings indicates there is a need
for effective and meaningful extension
advisory and service supports particularly
focusing on adopter categories viz., laggards
and late majority which will enable improved
adoption. Also, it will indirectly help other
categories as well, for further adoption. Thus
the extent of overall adoption of KAU
production practices can be still improved. The
study thus validate that rapid technology
progress and the increased rate of
obsolescence of technologies, necessitate not
only technology generation, but also, its
dissemination and adoption. Thus for any
planning process in agricultural extension
programmes, aimed for the socio-economic
prosperity of the homegarden farming
community, analyzing technology adoption
becomes imperative.

contribution has positive influence on level of
adoption and it means that for easy
dissemination of technology to farmers
different mass media and information sources
should be utilized to the maximum so as to
increase the level of adoption. The wide range
of technology be it visual or multimedia might
have an influence in their adoption and hence
the variable mass media or the other
information support services had a positive
and significant relationship with level of
adoption of homegarden farmers. Homegarden
farmers consider homegardening as a source
of income in addition to their other vocations.
The extension contribution showed a positive
significance to the level of adoption and an
improvement in the extension services offered

Fig 1. Distribution of homegarden
respondents into adopter categories