Analysis of the Dynamics and Obstacles to the Adoption of Technological Innovations: the Case of Rice Farming in Togo

This report deals with the adoption of technological innovations in the case of rice farming in Togo.

The following is a summary that introduces the report.

Technological innovations have been developed to help boost agriculture and contribute to food security in developing countries. In Togo, emphasis has been placed on the development of technologies and the introduction of those generated in the area shared by Togo with the other countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In order to analyze the dynamics and obstacles of adoption of technological inovations in the real environment the ‘’ Program of Accompaning Research for Agricultural Innovation (PARI) under the sponsorship of Agricultural Forum for African Research (FARA) funded this study. To do this, information was collected from a sample of rice farmers through a formal survey and focus groups. The formal survey was conducted with six hundred and fifty two (652) rice farmers in four (04) regions and focus groups with 45 rice farmers in the Central Region.The study thus looked at the case of Togolese rice farmers in order to enlighten the decision-makers and to better guide them in the decision-making for the actions to come and to formulate proposals of solutions. These technologies mainly concern the use of improved rice varieties and technologies related to good cultural practices and post-harvest. From these surveys it follows that innovative technologies introduced in rice-growing areas are variously appreciated. If some introduced improved varieties are adopted by most of the producers, it is not the same for the case of good agricultural practices Technology : Fertilizer application techniques, nursery practice, number of recommended plowing before planting, deep placement of urea, burial of crop residues, intensive rice system, transplanting to one (01) or two ( 02) strands,participatory learning action research on integrated soil fertility management (APRA-GIFS), participatory learning research action on integrated pest management (l’APRA-GIR) which are less practiced by farmers. This is also the case for post-harvest technologies. The analysis of this low adoption rate, shows that the lack of equipment, the high cost of technologies, the lack of manpower, the harshness of the producers' implementation of the technologies and the lack of information on the performance of the technologies being disseminated are the main reasons. Thus, the actions to be taken to improve the probability of adoption of these technologies must take these elements into account.