Skip to main content

Search Filter

Keywords:

 

Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development (AJAD) - Call for papers!

Economic analysis of adoption of water-saving irrigation technology of coffee farming households in Dak Lak province, Vietnam

(Vietnam), Doctor of Philosophy in Agricultural Economics (University of the Philippines Los Baños)

Dissertation Abstract:

This study analyzed the economic costs and benefits of adoption of water-saving irrigation technology (WSI) in Dak Lak province, Vietnam. The two WSI technologies considered in this study are drip irrigation and rain-spraying technique at the root. The results indicated that the adoption rate of WSI technology in Dak Lak province was low (35%) due to high initial cost of investment, insufficient evidence of benefits and difficult to access information on WSI technology. Impacts of psychological factors on the intentions of farmers towards WSI technology was investigated using structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings suggested that farmers' intention to adopt WSI technology depends on the five socio-psychological components of extended theory of planned behavior: attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, perceived ease of use, and awareness of consequence. Perceived behavior control was the most important significant variable. Factors influencing the actual adoption of WSI technology were examined using the probit model. The results revealed that the probability and extent of adoption of WSI technology are influenced by several factors: education of household head, credit access, contact extension agent, network, and farmers' group. The impacts of WSI technology adoption on coffee yields and income were examined using endogenous switching regression model (ESR). The results showed that the use of WSI technology positively effects coffee yield and profit, which increased by 14.33% and 18.14%, respectively. To increase the adoption of WSI technology, it is important to focus efforts on: (1) strengthening farmers' social capital, (2) disseminating the information about the WSI technology, (3) providing training courses about the WSI technology to the coffee farmers, 4) providing support to the coffee farmers, and (5) providing subsidy to support farmers' investment in WSI technology.