An analysis of socio demographic and agronomic factors associated with adoption of improved mango varieties among small scale farmers in Alego Usonga sub-county

The adoption of improved mango in Alego Usonga was still low covering an area of 12 Ha out of 47800 Ha of the arable land constituting only 0.025 %. The objective of this study was to determine the agronomic and demographic factors that influence adoption of improved mango varieties in Alego Usonga Sub County. The study adopted a cross sectional design to interview selected mango farmers who adopted planting of improved varieties. The study population was 320 famers witha sample size of 178. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, binomial regression analysis and chi-square test for inferential statistics at the 5% level of significance to determine differences with the aid of SPSS version 20.0 computer software. These results that were statistically significant and positively influenced improved mango adoption included, The Gender of respondents (OR=2.4;95% CI=(1.3-4.0), p=0.006) occupation(OR=2.5;95%CI=(1.1-5.7),p=0.028), education levels (OR=0.2;95% CI=(0.4-0.9), p=0.043), land ownership type (OR=4.35;95% CI=(2.16-8.78),p=0.010), household size (OR=2.26;95% CI=(1.22-4.21), p=0.0001), soil fertility improvement measures (OR=7.09; 95% CI=[3.5-14.3], p=0.0001), use of manure and inorganic fertilizers (OR=4.4;95% CI=(2.27-8.53), p≤0.0001), location (OR=10;95% CI= (1.6-63.0), p=0.043), (OR=5.8;95% CI=(1.7-20.6), p=0.006) and (OR=3.6;95% CI= (1.3-10.2), p=0.01), time of holes preparation (OR=3.53; 95% CI= [1.87-6.68], p=0.0001) and spacing (OR=5.63; 95% CI= [2.88-11.0], p=0.0001) and source of seedlings (OR=7.82; 95% CI= [1.78-34.45], p=0.007) The study recommends that the stakeholders in mango industry in Siaya County should have a Programme in place focusing on the females farmers; households with young families’ and assist farmers in acquiring land title deeds to increase mango adoption.