Farmers’ intentions to adopt Triple S for sweetpotato seed conservation

ABSTRACT

In Uganda, farmers in arid and semi-arid areas lack sweetpotato seed after dry spells. This constrains the crop’s potential to contribute to food security. Triple S (sand, storage, sprouting) is a root-based technology addressing seed scarcity. Despite the technology’s efficacy, a systematic assessment of its demand has not been done. A study was undertaken to assess how Knowledge, Attitudes, Norms and Perceptions influence farmers uptake of the Triple S, using a structured questionnaire with 255 farmers stratified into users (n = 132) and non-users (n = 123). Sex-disaggregated focus groups were conducted with 40 farmers. The Theory of Planned Behavior and Technology Adoption Model were used to test hypotheses on Triple S adoption. Perceived Behavior Control, Perceived Usefulness and Knowledge positively predicted Behavior Intention (BI) only for non-users, while Attitude, Subjective Norms and Agency predicted BI for users. Gender Norms negatively influenced Agency for both groups. Gender-responsive adoption strategies may enhance technology uptake.

KEYWORDS:

• Sweetpotato
• theory of planned behavior
• technology adoption model
• knowledge
• attitude
• norms
• and perceptions
• seed conservation
• Triple S
• Uganda

Acknowledgements

This research was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) and supported by CGIAR Trust Fund contributors http://www.cgiar.org/funders/ We are grateful to the sweetpotato farmers in the study communities who participated in this study. We also appreciate our research team for their commitment in data collection and collation. Special thanks go to the staff of World Vision and local leaders in the study districts for their support in mobilizing the respondents. Jeffery Bentley read and commented on a previous version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics declarations

This article is based on research that was undertaken in 2018–2019 under a study titled ‘Effect of the Triple S technology on farmers food security in northern and eastern Uganda. The study was registered and obtained ethical the St Francis Hospital Nsambya Research and Ethical Committee; Uganda; vide SFHN-2021-26.

Informed and signed consent was obtained from all individual farmers who participated in the study. Accordingly, all information that could potentially identify the participants has been removed and responses anonymized.

I warrant our manuscript is original work and has not been accepted for publication by another journal or periodical. I further warrant that our work (including figures, tables and other illustrative materials) does not infringe on the copyright or statutory rights of others and does not contain libelous statements.

Author contribution

Sarah Mayanja: Conceptualization (lead), Investigation (lead) Methodology (equal) Formal analysis (lead), Writing – original draft (lead), Writing – review and editing (lead) Software (equal), Janet Mwende Formal analysis (equal), Writing original draft (equal), Writing – review and editing (lead) Software (lead) Norman Kwikiriza Investigation (equal) Methodology (equal) Formal analysis (supporting), Writing – review and editing (supporting) Guy Hareau Funding acquisition (lead); Project administration (lead); Supervision (supporting); Writing-review & editing (supporting). Joseph Ssekandi Conceptualization (supporting); Supervision (equal), Writing-review & editing (supporting). Julius Okello Conceptualization (supporting); Methodology (equal) Funding acquisition (lead); Project administration (lead); Supervision (equal); Writing-review & editing (supporting).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the International Potato Center (CIP) but restrictions may apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of CIP.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Research Program (CRP) Roots Tubers and Bananas (RTB).