Intensity of adoption of integrated pest management practices in Rwanda: A fractional logit approach

Abstract

The push-pull technology (PPT) is considered as an alternative integrated pest management strategy for the control of fall armyworm and stemborer, among smallholder maize farmers in sub-Sahara African to conventional pesticides. However, the extent of PPT use in Rwanda where the technology was introduced in 2017 remains largely unexplored. This paper employed a fractional logit model to assess the factors influencing the intensity of adoption of PPT among smallholder maize farmers in Gatsibo and Nyagatare districts of Rwanda using survey data obtained from 194 PPT adopter households selected using a cluster sampling technique. While only 5 percent of smallholder farmers in Rwanda have adopted PPT as an integrated pest management strategy, on the average, these farmers cultivated 26 percent of their maize plots to the technology. Our results show that the perceived benefits of PPT, its perceived effectiveness in pest control, group membership, livestock ownership, and gender of the farmer had significant effects on the intensity of adoption of the PPT in Rwanda. These findings give compelling evidence to recommend that development initiatives should give emphasis on creating awareness on the perceived benefits of PPT adoption using group approaches that are gender disaggregated.