determinants of adoption of mini-tuber seed potato: a case in ardabil province of iran

The aim of this study was to examine factors affectingadoption of mini-tuber seed potato. survey research designwas used in this study. a sample of 100 potato growers whowere informed about mini-tuber was selected and divided intoadopter and non-adopter groups. questionnaire was used asthe instrument for data collection and was validated by a panelof experts. a pilot study was conducted for reliability andcronbach’s alphas obtained 0.77- 0.87. results revealed thatother farmers were the main source of information for respondents.higher yield, healthy seeds, marketability and highquality of potato produced from mini-tuber seeds were themain important reasons of adoption. non-adopters mentionedhigh cost of mini-tuber seed as the main factor for rejection.the result of t-test showed that adopters had used more farmmachineries and equipments. result further showed that amongfarming unit characteristics, the number of pieces of ownedfarmland had negative effect on the adoption. however, theadoption was positively affected by the extent of ownedfarmlands and extent of owned potato acreage. among personalcharacteristics, education level, number of literate householdmembers had positive effect while farmers’ age and farmingexperience had negative effect on the adoption, respectively.