SPATIOTEMPORAL PATTERNS OF ADOPTION OF CASSAVA IN SOUTHEASTERN COTE D’IVOIRE, 1951-2017

Abstract

Cassava is one of the world's leading staple root crops whose adoption for food security varies over space and time in the West African sub-region. Research on cassava has focused on production, processing, post-harvest systems, and diseases with little or no attention paid to spatial variation of its adoption. This study was therefore, designed to analysed spatiotemporal patterns of adoption, factors influencing adoption, and impediments to adoption of cassava in South Eastern Côte D'Ivoire during the period 1951 to 2017. Available information showed that cassava was first cultivated in South Eastern Côte D'Ivoire in 1951. Adoption of Innovation, Reasoned Action and Planned Behaviour provided the framework, while survey design was adopted. Based on the information provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the entire 154 villages cultivating cassava in the three districts (Comoé, Lacs and Lagunes) in South Eastern Côte D'Ivoire were purposive selected. Information on cassava growers’ associations were provided by Directors of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in, while the number of farmers in the cassava growers association was provided by officials of each association in villages. A structured questionnaire which focused on socio-economic characteristics, adoption of cassava, factors influencing, and impediments to its adoption was administered to all the 4000 members of the cassava growers’ associations in the three districts. Descriptive statistics, Global Moran’s I, Trend Analysis, Chi square and Analysis of Variance were used to analyse the data at 0.05. Female cassava farmers were 53.3%, 25.6% were aged between 31 and 40 years, 53.3% were married, 37.7% had primary education, 32.9% had more than five children, and 39.1% earned <121.000 FCFA (220 USD) annually. There was significant clustering of villages adopting cassava in 1951-1960 (I=0.26;z=5.9); 1961-1970 (I=0.25;z=5.8); 1971-1980 (I=0.28;z=6.4); 2001- 2010 (I=0.08;z=2.1) and the entire period 1951-2017 (I=0.05;z=1.3). The number of individuals who have adopted cassava was only 53 before1951 but increased to 1422 in 2017. The number of adopters increased significantly from 1951 to 2017 (R2= 0.72; F=6.2). Adoption of cassava in the districts was significantly influenced by: age (X²=483.061), sex (X²=14.861), marital status (X²=351.361) annual income (X²=772.924), educational level(X²=413.270) and number of children (X²=218.604). In Comoé district, annual income (X²=313.499); educational level (X²=237.131) and number of children (X²=71.012) were significantly related to cassava adoption, whereas in Lacs district, annual income (X²=302.581); educational level (X²=299.157) and number of children (X²=256.511) were the significant variables. In Lagunes district, annual income (X²=525.926); educational level (X²=105.192) and number of children (X²=151.538) significantly influenced cassava adoption. Financial return (73.1%) was the major reason for cassava adoption by farmers. The impediments to adoption of cassava in the districts were inadequate rainfall, no training on cassava cultivation, difficulty in getting stems, lack of capital and lack of labour. The pattern of adoption of cassava cultivation in South Eastern Côte D’Ivoire from 1951-2017 was mostly random. Financial gain was the major reason for its adoption. Therefore, more farmers should be encouraged to adopt and cultivate cassava given its contribution to income generation in the country.