Adoption of improved wheat varieties at Kanchanpur, Nepal

Usage of improved varieties raises the crop yield. To assess the adoption status of improved wheat varieties in the Kanchanpur district, this study investigated the varietal coverage of wheat along with factors affecting the adoption of improved varieties. A pre-tested interview schedule was administered to interview 90 randomly selected wheat-producing households in Bhimdutta, Bedkot and Dodhara Chandni (Mahakali) municipality. A binary logistic regression was used for triangulating the effect of different variables on the adoption of improved wheat varieties. Besides, descriptive statistics and indexing were also applied. The findings revealed that 80.97% of the area was under improved varieties, two-thirds of which were released varieties. In addition, of the released varieties, Vijay had the highest area coverage (27.97%), followed by Aditya (19.47%), Gautam (18.76%), NL971 (16.42%), BL4341 (13.65%) and others (3.73%), respectively. Further, the adoption of improved wheat varieties was found to be significantly driven by input subsidy (5% level) and access to extension services (10% level). Nevertheless, the adoption was impeded by problems namely; timely unavailability of improved variety seeds followed by lack of knowledge about improved varieties, unavailability of improved variety seeds in local markets, high cost of seeds and poor quality of seeds respectively, as identified and ranked by indexing. In light of these findings, input subsidies to the smallholding farmers, regular advisory and extension services along with participatory training programs relevant to the adoption of improved practices and timely availability of improved seeds are suggested to increase the adoption of improved wheat varieties among the farmers.