An evaluation of factors that hinder subsistence farmers from diverting to profitable farming in Botswana: a lesson for Extension Officers

Abstract

The government of Botswana has over the years provided support programmes to farmers to subsidize agricultural inputs in order to raise the level of profitability. Despite the wide range of Agriculture support there has been very little improvement in traditional agricultural sector. The objective of the study is to identify the factors that hinder traditional farmers from transforming to profitable farming. The results show that most of the farmers did not adopt some specific types of innovation like row planting, use of fertilizers, use of improved crop varieties, crop rotation and pest control techniques. The reasons for not adopting such innovations included most importantly because extension agents don’t know whom they are serving