Farmers’ perceptions and determinants of indigenous technical knowledge (ITK) use in ricebean production in Nyanza Region of Kenya

This study examined the perceptions of farmers towards Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) in ricebean (Vigna umbellata) production. It was guided by the perception-adoption mediation framework based on the diffusion of innovations and technology adoption theories. The survey design applied was a cross-sectional survey on ricebean-growing farmers in the Nyanza region. Purposive, systematic and snowball sampling was used to recruit 397 respondents. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire and key informant interview and analysed using descriptive statistics, the perception index and multivariate regression analysis. Farmers highly ranked ITK in terms of environmental friendliness (mean=4.49), low cost (4.33), accessibility (4.18), cultural acceptability (4.17) and human safety (4.16). Moderate ratings were given to effectiveness, and similarity to CK was the lowest (3.08). Education had a significant effect on the perceptions of effectiveness (p ≤ 0.001), availability (p ≤ 0.013) and affordability (p ≤ 0.020); land size had an effect on the perceptions of effectiveness (p = 0.058) and environmental friendliness (p ≤ 0.005); income level had an effect on the perceptions of effectiveness (p ≤ 0.001) and affordability (p ≤ 0.041). Differences in genders were significant with human safety (p ≤ 0.033), environmental friendliness (p ≤ 0.033) and ITK resembling CK (p ≤ 0.070). The results indicate that ITK is significant in that it is cost-effective and environmentally friendly and culturally acceptable, and there is a need to tailor-create interventions according to the socio-demographic variables in order to make ricebean farming sustainable.