Abstract:

Sweet potato is a key food security crop with the potential of generating income and improving human nutrition for smallholder farmers in Uganda. It is a major drought resistant root crop with a unique potential of low soil nutrients needs and a short maturity period of three to five months. Orange Fleshed Sweet potato (OFSP) requires little effort, to be considered as high-value crops in marketing. It also supplies substantial amounts of vitamins A and C. Efforts have been made by several organizations and projects to develop numerous varieties and technologies that can enhance its utilization and disseminated through various pathways. However, most of the technologies generated hardly reach farmers. OFSP is constrained by lack of market, sourcing consistent supplies of good quality roots, insufficient coordination, insufficient attention to institutional linkages, poor communication channels affecting the flow of information and insufficient involvement of the private sector. Various studies have been undertaken to address these constraints; however, little has been done to stimulate the effectiveness of communication channels in adoption of OFSP. It is against this background that a study was designed to investigate the effect of communication channels on adoption of OFSP in Gulu district, in Northern Uganda. The study particularly sought to recommend communication channels and strategies that could raise the adoption of OFSP in Gulu district. The objectives of the study were to identify the communication channels employed in dissemination of OFSP and investigate their effectiveness in adoption OFSP. This was in view of the fact that the types of communication channels and their operational effectiveness has changed yet the adoption rate of OFSP among farmers have remained fairly the same over the years. The study was conducted in three project sites: first site consisted of four farmer groups namely: the Urib Can group, the Rubanga Lakica group, Can Miyo Rycko group and Pit-tek group in Koro Sub County, Achoyo parish, Koch village in Omoro County. The second site was Bungatira Sub County, Layik, Laroo, Bwobo, Lawiyadul and Punena villages all in Aswa County while the third site was Unyama Subcounty in Ajuko village, Aswa County where individual respondents were Interviewed. The study adopted household survey research design as the main investigative design, using semi structured questionnaires, FGDs and key informant interviews administered to 218 respondents out of a total population of 1,100 from three sub counties based on purposive sampling method. Data was analyzed using SPSS technique and results presented in tables and figures. The study established that the most common communication channels used in order of importance by respondents were interpersonal - farm demonstrations by 88%, Mass media radio by 10%. The adoption rates of OFSP were found to be 2% in 2009, 13% in 2010 and 85% in 2011. In relation to the most informative source, 86% strongly agreed that it was extension agent, followed by farm demonstration (76%). In terms of coverage capacity, informativeness, frequency of use and accessibility, interpersonal channels were significant in adoption of OFSP compared to mass media channels. The majority of farmers who used OFSP channels were 100% adults, 84% are married. typically, female (65%), with 36% income, had some formal education (30%) while 56% belong to a group. Therefore, farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics should be considered in technology adoption. The study also recommended that multiple channels including mass media and interpersonal specifically farm demonstrations should be considered information dissemination and communication respectively.