Farmers Adoption of Agricultural Mechanization in Rainfed Sector, Gedarif State, Sudan

Abstract

The present study seeks to investigate the adoption of agricultural mechanization by rainfed small-scale farmers, in Gedarif State, Sudan. A field survey was used to collect data from 100 rainfed small-scale farmers, in Gedarif State, Sudan. A close-ended questionnaire was constructed and the personal interview technique was used to administer the questionnaire. The collected data were coded, fed to the computer, statistically analyzed using (SPSS), discussed and interpreted using descriptive statistics and the chi-square test. Using the descriptive statistics the results showed that the majority of farmers (98%) used tractor sizes 75-125, the majority of them (87%) used wide level disk (WLD), the majority of them (85%) their time of tillaging preparation is June-July, the majority of them (94%) used WLD as a row planter, the majority of them (96%) used the semi-mechanical weeding, (58%) of them used the manual harvest and the majority of them (77%) reported that they renting the machines from other farmers. Chi-square test result revealed that there was no significant association between the adoption of tractor sizes used, adoption of the type of agriculture equipment used for land preparation, adoption of time of tillaging, adoption of the type of seeders used, adoption of the type of weeding used, adoption of harvest type and farmers adoption of kind of machine ownership and farmers’: Age group, education level, and farm size. From this study, it can be concluded that the farmers are not adopting the complete package of the recommended agricultural mechanization in the study area. The study recommends that determinants facing farmers in this subsector should be solved.