International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology Vol-8, Issue-1; Jan-Feb, 2023 Journal Home Page Available: https://ijeab.com/ Journal DOI: 10.22161/ijeab Peer Reviewed ISSN: 2456-1878 (Int. J. Environ. Agric. Biotech.) https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijeab.81.10 82 A Perception-Based Survey on Innovation and Technology Adoption by Small-Scale Farmers in Semi-Arid Zimbabwe Tirivashe Phillip Masere Department of Land and Water Resources Management, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe Received: 18 Jan 2023; Received in revised form: 17 Feb 2023; Accepted: 23 Feb 2023; Available online: 28 Feb 2023 ©2023 The Author(s). Published by Infogain Publication. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Abstract— This study was conducted with agricultural extension agents of semi-arid Zimbabwe to gather their perceptions on innovation and technology adoption by small-scale resource-constrained farmers, as well as the effect of their working conditions on the quality of service delivery to small-scale farmers. Data was solicited through focus group discussions (FGDs) and semi-structured interviews (SSIs) with all the public agricultural extension agents operating in the study area. It was found that agents were mainly hampered by lack of in- service training, transport and poor remuneration. Of all disseminated technologies during the last 20 years, respondents assessed that 17% had very low adoption rate, 26% had low adoption, 17% had average adoption, 26% had high adoption and only 13% had very high adoption. Bulky, expensive and risky technologies like tractors, solar driers, metal silos and bee farming were among the least adopted whereas hybrid seeds and value addition were very highly adopted. Reasons for the very low adoption were noted to be lack of capital, markets and information support on how to use new technology. Despite these challenges respondents indicated that small-scale farmers had the capacity to innovate and to adopt technology in the form of indigenous knowledge, willingness and commitment to learn and improve productivity, and labor. Agents suggested the strengthening of farmer-extension-research linkages so that technologies could be developed from some successful indigenous innovations, where possible and also to ensure the development of technology tailor-made to the needs of small- scale farmers, resource-endowments and biophysical conditions of their farming communities. Keywords— Adoption, indigenous knowledge, innovation, small-scale farmers, technology. I. INTRODUCTION Extension plays an important role of transferring technologies to small-scale farmers for adoption and in fostering development of innovations from among diverse actors [1,2]. Extension is also responsible for taking feedback from farmers to research and technology developers [3]. However, for extension to effectively and efficiently deliver quality service to their clients they need adequate resources and facilities, including transport for their agents to reach farmers and regular appropriate in- service trainings for agents to update their skills [1]. Unfortunately, the primary public extension agency in Zimbabwe, the Department of Agricultural Technical and Extension Services (AGRITEX), is faced with serious challenges hindering its service delivery [1, 4, 5]. Consequently farmers are not receiving optimal extension services from agents, who are poorly remunerated and with little or no motivation to do their job. This has led to less adoption of recommended technology by farmers. For these reasons, this study was conducted in Lower Gweru, a semi-arid communal area in Zimbabwe, to gather perceptions and assessments of agricultural extension agents on innovation and technology adoption by small- scale resource-constrained farmers, as well as the effect of their working conditions on the quality of service delivery they render to small-scale farmers. Lower Gweru communal area was selected from among semi-arid areas in Zimbabwe because it has recorded increased number of technologies disseminated over the last 20 years and it is also dominated by small-scale farmers. II. MATERIAL AND METHODS 2.1. Study area description