Factors affecting the adoption of orange flesh sweet potato in Pece Laroo Division, Gulu City.

Abstract

Orange flesh sweet potato is a paramount source of beta carotene the precursor to vitamin A with only 125g containing enough beta carotene to provide the daily pro vitamin A. Despite its high potential in the eradication of vitamin A deficiency very few people are adopting this variety which forms the essence of this study to find out the factors affecting adoption of orange flesh sweet potato in Gulu district. The aim of this study was to: characterize farmers involved in production of OFSP, to assess the factors affecting adoption of orange flesh sweet potato in Pece Laroo division, to determine the factors affecting consumption of orange flesh sweet potato. Data was collected from 72 respondents using a well-structured questionnaire and later processed using different computer software like SPSS, excel and graphs to come up with the results as briefly described below: Results also indicate that very few farmers receive extension workers and services with 12.5% receiving and 87.5% do not receive those services. On asking respondents whether orange fresh sweet potato vines are easily available, 76.4 % responded with a no and 23.6% responded with a yes. Therefore, orange fresh sweet potato vines are not easily available to all the farmers in Gulu city. According to the bar graph, majority of the respondents got information about OFSP from radios, followed by friends, newspapers, a combination and television. Television was the least because most of the respondents cannot afford to buy television hence limiting information received by this source. Because some illustrations cannot be made via radios or from other form of non-visual sources thus limiting the transferability of the knowledge to the next generation.