Factors influencing the adoption of yoghurt technology in the Western Highlands Agro-ecological zone of Cameroon

*V P Nchinda* and S D Mendi**

^*Socioeconomics Programme, ^**Food Technology and Post Harvest Programme. Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), Cameroon. P.O.Box 80,  Bamenda Cameroon
petenstebe@yahoo.com 

Abstract 

The objective of this paper was to determine factors that influence adoption of yoghurt processing technology in the Western Highlands of Cameroon.

Data collected from 42 respondents dispersed in six communities in the study area using structured questionnaires revealed that a significant proportion (57%) of respondents adopted the yoghurt processing technology as opposed to 43% non-adoptors. However, the adopters do not make any significant contributions to addressing the demand for yoghurt in the region. A logistic regression analysis of data from the respondents using intercooled stata 9 at P < 0.05 revealed that the major determinants of the adoption of yoghurt technology are:  sex, small startup capital, access to milk, and basic ingredients such as culture.

In order to broaden the adoption of the yoghurt processing technology, it would be required that stakeholders take necessary measures to increase the production of milk, intensify the transfer of technology through extension services as well as place the required inputs especially culture at the disposal of processors.

Key Words: Africa, dairy industry, knowledge, milk, small scale farmers, stakeholders

Introduction

Researchers of the Food Technology Laboratory of the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) Bambui Centre have been working with small-scale dairy farmers since 1983. Their activities centred on milk collection processing and preservation under conditions of the zone and capacity building of dairy farmers in milk handling and processing. The laboratory worked in close collaboration with Non-Governmental Organizations especially Heifer International Cameroon (HI-Cameroon) and the National Agricultural Research and Extension Programme (PNVRA). Within this working period, technologies in milk pasteurization, yoghurt, cheese and butter making have been extended to small-scale farmers and other milk processors within the ecological zone.

Yoghurt making technology as described by Tamime and Robinson (1985) and the adaptation to local conditions by Kamga and Anyangwe (1991) was disseminated as yoghurt is the most widely consumed dairy product in the zone and in the country (Vabi and Tambi 1995).

The development of the dairy sector especially yoghurt production in the Western Highlands has good prospects for adding value to milk, its conservation, nutrient source and poverty alleviation. According to FAO report (1988), the dairy industry provides a means of livelihood for a significant proportion of rural pastoral families in the sub-humid and semi-arid ecological zones of Nigeria. For instance, about 183,000 rural households were said to have derived some income from the dairy industry in 1986. This ability of the dairy enterprise to generate regular income and to contribute to the household diet on a regular basis throughout the year is an advantage over other agribusiness enterprises (Muriuki 2001).

The observed adoption choice of an agricultural technology like yoghurt processing is hypothesized to be the end result of socio-economic characteristics of farmers and a complex set of inter-technology preference comparisons made by farmers (Adesina and Forson 1995).

A few recent studies have focused especially more on farmers’ adoption behavior which explained by perception about information needs, information input and information output patterns (Mudukuti and Miller 2002; Randhir-Singh et al 1996), inter-system and intra-system communication pattern (Konju 1992) and knowledge level about farm technologies (Vasanta and Somasundaram 1988).

Rezvanfar (2007) showed that information input, information output, farmer intra-system communication, farmer-researcher communication, farmer-extensionist communication, availability of input facilities and overall knowledge level about dairy farming technologies had positive and highly significant relationship (p<0.01) with overall adoption of dairy farming technologies by livestock owners.

The literature on diffusion and adoption of agricultural technologies suggest that the adoption behavior of farmers is explained by farmer and household characteristics (Wheeler and Ortmann 1990), institutions and infrastructure variables (Hayami and Ruttan 1985) and perceptions about agricultural technologies (Feder et al 1985).

Adesina and Forson (1995) indicated that the expected result of age is an empirical question. There is no agreement in the adoption literature on this as the direction of the effect is generally location or technology specific Education augments one's ability to receive, decode and understand information relevant to making innovative decisions (Wozniak 1984). One of the major factors limiting the productivity of operators in the small scale dairy enterprise was their low literacy level, which might make it difficult for them to fully appreciate the need to adopt improved milk processing and handling techniques (Igwe 2002).  Based on the innovation-diffusion literature (Adesina and Forson 1995), it is hypothesized that extension visit is positively related to adoption by exposing farmers to new information and technical skills about disease control, housing and equipment and feeding.

The determination of the adoption of yoghurt technology to small scale processors in the Western Highlands of Cameroon remains an important fact to be established. This is useful in the development of the dairy sector especially yoghurt production in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. The objective of this paper is to determine factors that influence the adoption of yoghurt processing technology in the Western Highlands of Cameroon.

Methodology 

The study area

The Western Highlands is an agro-ecological zone located between latitudes 5°20' and 7° North and longitude 9°40' and 11°10' East of the Equator. The surface area of the zone is 17,910 km² covering 1/6 of the country's land area. Altitudes range from 300 to 3000 m above sea level. The climate is marked by a dry season from November to mid March and a rainy season from mid March to October. Rainfall ranges between 1300-3000 mm with a mean of 2000 mm. Minimum and maximum temperatures have means of 15.50°C and 24.5°C, respectively; although temperatures can go above 30°C. There are three types of soils: volcanic, hydromorphic and ferralitic. The human population is estimated at 1.82 million inhabitants, being one of the highest population densities in the country, with at least 79 inhabitants per km² and a population growth rate of 3.1%

Data collection

The study was conducted in six different communities (Vekovi, Bafoussam, Koutaba 1, Koutaba 2, Akum and Fundong) in the West and North West Provinces of the Western Highlands agro-ecological zone of Cameroon. The choice of these communities was driven by the substantial number of dairy cooperatives and farmers operating in the area and the number of smallholder farmers whose capacities in yoghurt technology were strengthened by resource persons from the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) in collaboration with Heifer Project International (HPI) and the National Agricultural Research and Extension Programme (PNVRA).  

Primary data were collected from 42 respondents and using structured questionnaire. Data collected include socioeconomic characteristics of respondents such as sex, education, startup capital, Access to milk, Access to basic ingredients, Technical backup from extension service and household size.

The field survey was carried out between May and June 2006. Random sampling technique was employed to select interviewers.

Data analysis

A total of 42 questionnaires were administered and 36 used to determine factors influencing the adoption of yoghurt processing technology. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used for the data analysis using a statistical package called intercooled stata 9. Respondents that adopted the yoghurt technology were given the value 1 and non-adopters 0. The analysis was done with 7 independent socioeconomic variables. The adoption of yoghurt technology (Y) was the dependent variable.

The logit model for the adoption of yoghurt technology applicable is as presented below:

Logit(y₁=1) =f(β₀ + β₁sex₁ + β₂Education level₁  +  β₃ Start capital₁, +  β₄Access to milk₁ + β₅Access to basic ingredients₁ + β₆Scientific Technical backup from extension service₁ + β₇Household size₁)

With:     

Where,

·                     Sex  (X₁): (0=female, 1=male);

·                     Education level(X₂): (0= no formal education, 1= else)

·                     Start capital (X₃): (0=less than 20000, 1=more than 20000);

·                     Access to milk (X₄): (0=no, 1=easy access to milk)

·                     Access to basic ingredients (X₅): (0= not easy, 1=easy);

·                     Technical backup from extension service (X6): 0=other yoghurt processors, 1=IRAD +NGO)

·                     Household size(X₇): (0=less than 5 persons, 1=more than 5 persons);

Results and discussion

Adoption of yoghurt processing technology

The findings of the survey revealed that 57% of the respondents adopted the yoghurt processing technology in the Western Highlands of Cameroon against 43% non-adopters. Seventy five percent (75%) of these adopters were women against only twenty five percent (25%) for males. Hence, a greater proportion of women adopted the technology than males.

The level of education of 67.7% of adopters was either primary or that no formal education was received.  The average capital used by respondents to start production of yoghurt was 11 458 frs cfa (Euro 17.5). Ninety six percent (96%) of the respondents were able to raise this startup capital. Seventy nine percent of respondents easily get access to milk required to process yoghurt. However, an absolute majority of the respondents (54%) do not have easy access to basic inputs especially culture.  This also accounts for the fact that the average weekly quantity of yoghurt processed per adopter still stands at 25l corresponding to a total of 803l produced by 36 respondents each week. This is insignificant compared to the demand for yoghurt in the western highlands.

Factors influencing the adoption of yoghurt technology

The analysis of data collected showed that four factors significantly influence the adoption of yoghurt processing technology in the Western highlands of Cameroon. The table below gives the details of the logistic regression analysis of 36 observations.

·                    The model occurs to be globally significant, affirming the explanatory power of the retained variables: Prob > chi2 =   0.0001 at 5% level of significance.

·                    The pseudo R² is 0.62. This means that 62% of the adoption of the yoghurt production technique is explained by the retained variables. The linktest also confirmed the predicted R² value (Table 2).

·                    The constant is not significant indicating a total dependence of the adoption of the technology on the explanatory variables.

·                    The following explanatory variables were significant at P < 0.05:

-                    Sex (Prob=0.039), women have a higher propensity to adopt yoghurt production than men;

-                    Starting capital (Prob=0.026), the adoption of the technology was because of the small startup capital (<20,000) frs which adopters raised without difficulties. In order words respondents are 16 times more disposed to adopt the technology than those who intend to start with high capital;

-                    Easy access to milk (Prob=0.034), accessibility to milk is linked to the adoption of yoghurt production. The adopting propensity of those who have easy access to milk is higher than that of those who do not have easy access to milk.

-                    Access to materials (Prob=0.010), the easier the access to needed material or inputs like culture, the higher the propensity to adopt yoghurt production technology.

-                     In spite of their non significance, the other retained explanatory variables contribute to the consistence and the reliability of the estimators or influencing factors. These are the level of education, Technical backup from extension service (Teacher) and the Household size of respondents.

Conclusion and recommendations 

The objective of this paper was to determine factors that influence the adoption of yoghurt processing technology in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. A statistical analysis of data collected revealed that four explanatory variables significantly influence the adoption of the yoghurt processing technology at P < 0.05. These variables include sex, education, startup capital, access to milk, access to basic ingredients, technical backup from extension service and household size.

In order to broaden the adoption of the yoghurt processing technology in the Western Highlands of Cameroon, it would be necessary for the stakeholders to take the necessary measures to increase the production of milk, intensify the transfer of technology and follow up through extension services as well as place the required inputs especially culture at the disposal of processors. Policy makers and the stakeholders of the dairy sector are hereby called upon to develop the sector thereby taking measures to encourage the adoption of the yoghurt technology. This is vital for poverty alleviation and improving the nutritional status of households especially children.

References 

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Received 28 December 2007; Accepted 3 April 2008; Published 3 July 2008

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