Factors Influencing Adoption of Seed Potato Mini-Tuber in Ardabil County

One of the main constraints of potato production is the cost of seed potato tubers that accounts for 30-50 percent of production costs. From an economic point of view, the mini-tuber system of seed tuber production has a world wide important place in potato production.The aim of this survey study was to investigate factors influencing adoption of seed potato mini-tuber in Ardabil County. The statistical population of the study was potato growers who were familier with seed potato mini-tuber. A sample of 100 farmers was randomly selected and the data were collected from them. Questionnaire was the instrument of the study. It was validated by specialists and potato field experts. A pilot study was conducted using 30 farmers for reliability and the obtained Cronbach’s Alpha were between 0.77- 0.87. Results revealed that higher yield was the main farmers’ reason for the adoption. On the contrary, more seed cost and lack of technical knowledge about mini-tuber cultivation were the main reasons for non-adoption, respectively. According to the results, adopters had more mechanized farms.The findings revealed that the number of parcels hold by a farmer, age of farmer and years of farming had a negative relationship with adoption. On the other hand, farm size, year of education and number of literate person in the farm household had a positive impact on adoption. .