A gendered approach to determinants of adoption of cassava-legume intensification technology and its impact on households’ poverty status in innovation platforms of Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

The scourge of poverty has spread over Nigeria. Efforts to address the problem have yielded no tangible results. This study investigated a gendered approach to determinants of adoption of cassava-legume intensification technology and its impact on households’ poverty status in innovation platforms. A multistage sampling technique was used in selecting 160 respondents. The adoption index, the Tobit regression model, FGT analysis, and the ordered probit regression model were used to analyze the data. The adoption intensity of cassava-legume intensification technology was relatively low (28.06%), with that of female gender households 3.20% higher than that of their male counterparts. The Tobit regression model revealed that the intensity of adoption of cassava-legume technology was positively and significantly influenced by the years of education, household size, credit accessibility and household gender participation, among other factors. In addition, the ordered probit regression model revealed that revenue generated from cassava-legume, adoption intensity of the technology, extension visits, and gender of the household head were significant factors positively affecting household poverty while household size negatively affected household poverty. This indicates that cassava-legume intensification technology can assist individuals in escaping poverty. Gender sensitivity should, however, be considered when adopting new technologies, and an enabling atmosphere should be developed to enable women to participate.

Keywords:

• gender
• adoption
• intensification
• poverty
• cassava
• Tobit model
• ordered probit model
• Nigeria

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets are available on request.

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to the farmers who sat patiently for hours to provide responses to the questionnaire.

This manuscript is based on an MSc dissertation by I. R. Olaniyan (2018). A. T. Adesiyan conceived and designed the methodology and the identification of models. I. R. Olaniyan contributed materials, analysis tools and data, analyzed and interpreted the data, and wrote the paper. A. D. Kehinde wrote, prepared, and formatted the manuscript. I. Gaya edited and formatted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Notes

1 The outcome variable for Tobit model, intensity of adoption, is the adoption index of cassava legumes intensification technologies in the study area.