Adoption of forage conservation technologies by dairy farmers in temperate Bhutan

Abstract

The study aimed to identify socio-economic factors influencing adoption of forage conservation technologies mainly silage making and urea treated straw. Both probability and non-probability multi-stage clustering sampling techniques were used to gather information. Ten villages (5 each from two gewogs) were randomly selected to interview 100 household representatives. Semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Among dairy farmers, females outnumbered males in the adoption of silage making technology. Age also influenced technology adoption and more middle aged dairy farmers adopted silage making. Silage making was adopted more by farmers who were members of dairy groups and those who owned crossbreed cattle. Factors that had no influence on technology adoption were, size of household and landholding, level of education, and cattle herd size.