Is the longstanding local rice cultivar “X-Jigna” being replaced by the improved variety “Shaga” in fogera plain, Northwest Ethiopia?

Abstract

This study investigates how far and by what factors the local rice cultivar X-Jigna is being replaced by the improved variety Shaga in the Fogera plain, Ethiopia. It applied a mixed-method research design. The explanatory method was used to analyze qualitative data, while simple descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze quantitative data. As a result, the adoption level of improved rice varieties was found to be too low (15%), while the vast majority of rice-growing households used X-Jigna. However, the explanatory analysis highlighted that Shaga outperforms X-Jigna in resilience to diseases and shattering, higher grain yield, and softness of injera and flour density traits. Consequently, its percentage share of area coverage increased from 1 to 12, while X-Jigna’s decreased from 95 to 84 within a short time. This phenomenon demonstrates great strides have been made in replacing X-Jigna with Shaga. Based on the results of logistic regression analysis, age, educational background, and experience in rice cultivation of household heads, land-owned size, and road and credit access significantly influence adoption decisions. Therefore, it is suggested that offering youth-oriented extension services, expanding education services, improving road infrastructure, and reducing bureaucracy in credit services are areas to be emphasized to improve adoption.

Keywords:

• Adoption level
• Fogera plain
• Rice-growing households
• Shaga
• X-Jigna

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Rice was introduced to Ethiopia in the 1970s by North Korea. It is considered a strategic crop and is named the “Millennium Crop” because of its importance as a food security crop, a source of revenue, and job possibilities. A total of 39 varieties have been developed, despite their adoption level being quite low. The variety itself and the environment in which the variety is functioning are mentioned as sources of low adoption. Hence, this study aims to explore adoption drivers from the two perspectives using qualitative and quantitative analyses, as neither quantitative nor qualitative research is adequate to meet the underlying research aim. Accordingly, results showed great strides have been made in replacing X-Jigna with improved varieties, mainly Shaga. Offering youth-oriented extension, expanding education services, improving the road infrastructure, and reducing bureaucracy in credit institutions were taken as way-outs to enhance the adoption of improved rice varieties by smallholder farmers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. ETB is Ethiopia currency which is equivalent to 1 US dollar to 44.32 ETB during data collection on 27 Dec. 2021

2. Injera is pancake-like soft bread in Ethiopia.

Additional information

Funding

The author did not receive direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Adane Melak Beyene

Adane Melak Beyene is an agricultural extension researcher at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research. He obtained his BSc degree in the field of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension from Haramaya University in 2006 and his MSc in Rural Development from University College Cork and Hawassa University in 2012. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the field of Rural Development (Agricultural Commercialization and Rural Institutions stream) at Haramaya University. His research interests focus on scaling science, seed systems, crop commercialization and diversification, and food and nutrition security. He has published journal articles in the African Journal of Agricultural Research (AJAR), International Journal of Agricultural Economics (IJAE), International Journal of Research Studies in Agricultural Sciences (IJRSAS), Cogent Environmental Science, and World Scientific News (WSN).