Smallholder farmers’ perceptions on Bt maize and their relative influence towards its adoption: The case of Mqanduli communal area, South Africa

Will farmers intend to cultivate Provitamin A genetically modified (GM) cassava in Nigeria? Evidence from a k-means segmentation analysis of beliefs and attitudes

“…Most studies examining producer-and-consumer’s awareness, knowledge and attitude toward GM—conducted in African countries with and without GM experience [ 16 , 19 , 40 , 41 , 42 ]; have shown that public awareness about GM could be high in some cases but knowledge about different aspects of GM is generally low. There are high information costs and poor knowledge about GM technology in many African countries.…”

“…Few studies such as [ 19 ] linked influence of attitude (based on perceived risk and benefit) to the actual adoption of Bt Maize among smallholder farmers in South Africa where policy on GM technology has been operational. In countries where policy on GM is under consideration, the relationship between farmers’ attitude and potential adoption of GM crops can only be viewed through predictions based on a priori theory.…”

Experiences in sub-Saharan Africa with GM crop risk communication

“…The public acceptance of GM crops in countries of SSA is divided, but generally, the more familiar the public is with biotechnology, the more they tend to hold a positive view. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Even when concerns of risks abound, there is great interest in the prospects that biotechnology can bring towards food security, agriculture improvement and economic gains, and also a great interest in obtaining more information on the subject. 6,8,12,14 Yet communication concerning the potential risks and benefits of GM crops has been perceived by various stakeholders in SSA as generally poor, and one of the main factors leading to the delay in approval for GM crops throughout the sub-continent.…”

“…34), the main messages of risk communication do seem to reach the public as shown by the awareness levels displayed by farmers and urban populations in surveys. 13,14 Although most efforts in experience-sharing with biotechnology are reliant upon indirect written and verbal channels, the strategy of "seeing-is-believing" is being adopted more often for risk communication in SSA, with reports that field trial visits are becoming a more decisive factor in influencing farmers to cultivate GM crops. 35 As a result, tours and field trips, field days, farm walks, exchanges of real life stories with farmers already cultivating GM crops have been employed in Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.…”

Smallholder adoption of technology: Evidence from the context of climate smart agriculture in South Africa

“…Despite evidence that effective uptake of CSA practices and initiatives enable the agricultural sector to become more adaptive and resilient to climate variability and farmers got protection against changing weather patterns, pests and diseases (Suleman, 2017;Wekesa et al, 2018), smallholder farmers adoption is insufficient (Barnard et al, 2015).Technology adoption and specifically the transition to CSA is affected by several factors (Baiyegunhi, 2015;Fischer et al, 2015;Long et al, 2016;Meijer et al, 2015;Mushunje et al, 2011;Nyasimi et al, 2017;Senyolo et al, 2018). These include barriers related to capital and high costs of labour, availability of inputs, uncertainty, cost and benefits of the technology, gender, socio-cultural practices, access to market, access to credits and lack of knowledge among others, and the fact that some CSA measures often reduce short-term profits (Drechsel et al, 2005;Fischer et al, 2015;Mulaudzi and Oyekale, 2015;Nyasimi et al, 2017).…”