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This study identifies the perceptions and adoption decisions of Enhanced Freshness Formulation (EFF) technologies among potentially banana growers in Morogoro, Tanzania. The study establishes whether men and women are likely to have equal preferences in adoption of new technologies and explores whether women who are able and those who are unable to adopt technologies face similar adoption challenges. The present study revealed that, potential adopters of EFF technologies seem to attach more weight to uniform ripening, colour intensity (attractiveness), and freshness followed by easiness of formulation and application, then minimum adverse health and environmental effects. This study also found that the adoption prospect was lower among female than male adopters, although its overall impact on the adoption rate was low. Moreover, the findings indicated limited adoption prospect of the technologies among female growers perceiving EFF as labour insensitive technologies. The study established higher adoption prospect among growers whose banana are at early stages of maturity. Continued efforts to address a priori the challenges that can potentially undermine the adoption, easing the use of technologies, and targeting growers whose fruits are at early stages of maturity, as ideal means to enhance the adoption during the introduction phase. The present study recommends the EFF package to mainly focus on preferred fruit attributes, especially easy formulation and application and minimum health and environmental effects. Future studies should focus on impacts of specific formulation of the EFF on the adoption prospect. |
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