Abstract
Despite numerous empirical studies on the determinants of diffusion of chemical technologies among farmers in Nigeria, a reappraisal of the issue is undertaken in this paper. The need arises because previous studies assume that all potential adopters have equal opportunity to adopt an innovation and focus, therefore, upon individual characteristics to explain differences in the level of adoption over time.
This paper assumes that the opportunity to adopt an innovation is unequal; hence, factors related to the supply of the innovation are considered alongside with the ‘demand’ factors.
Evidence in this paper indicates that the ‘demand’ factors, such as farm size, product prices, degree of farm enterprise diversification, experience, total number of previous adopters and chemical cost, are statistically significant and have the expected sign.
Furthermore, the ‘supply’ factors, such as the quantity of chemical available for sale, number of chemical distribution stations, frequency of extension contact and advertisement expenditure, are also statistically significant and have the expected sign.
It is, therefore, suggested that, to enhance the diffusion of cocoa-spraying chemicals among Nigerian cocoa farmers, there is need for a policy which will emphasise adequate and prompt supply of chemicals to them as well as the provision of adequate information about the technology to farmers using all available media.
