Analysis of extrinsic and intrinsic factors affecting the adoption of biogas technology in the Mbarara district in Western Uganda: a case study of the Mbarara district

Abstract

This study concentrated on the extrinsic and intrinsic factors on the adoption of biogas Technology following the fact that, Despite the enormous advantages, existing policies and abundant biogas sources, biogas energy use in Uganda still remains low as 87% of the people in rural areas relied on biomass. Thus, this study specifically undertaken to assess the effect of communities’ knowledge on the adoption of biogas technology, establish the effect of decision making process about the biogas technology in the household with focus on gender, and to assess the effect of attitude of the communities’ on the biogas technology adoption. A cross sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. A total of 186 respondents participated in the study. Linear regression which measured the effect of the variables under the study was performed and results interpreted at 0.05% level of significance. The study established that communities knowledge explain 9.0% of the variance in the bio gas adoption among the farmers in Mbarara district (Adjusted R2= .090). Decision Making Process explain 69.9% of the variance in the bio gas technology adoption among the farmers in Mbarara district and Attitude of the communities’ explain 69.8% of the variance in the bio gas adoption among the farmers in Mbarara district (Adjusted R2= .698). This shows that community’s knowledge about the biogas is a significant predictor of the adoption as explained by 69.8% of the respondents. The study concluded that that communities’ knowledge about biogas technology was essential for technology adoption. This implied that the way the community understands the bio gas technology determines whether they will adopt it or not. The findings on the effect of decision making process revealed that it contributes highly and significantly to the overall adoption of biogas technology and thus a unit change in decision making process is a significant predictor of whether the households will adopt biogas technology. Lastly, the attitude of communities towards biogas technology positively significantly influences its adoption, thus if people have a negative attitude it would lead to low uptake and high uptake if its positive since in general terms attitude explains 69.8% of the choice of adoption on biogas technology. The study recommended that since communities’ knowledge influenced the biogas technology adoption by only 9% which is very low perhaps because the communities are not fully sensitized on the advantages of biogas, government through its line ministry of energy and mineral development should team up with NGOs to conduct massive sensitization of farmers to adopt biogas energy which is by far has more advantages compared to other biomass energy. It has also been seen that attitude contributes significantly to the adoption of technology adoption yet one of the challenges seen in the study was financing. Therefore, government should set up demonstration plants in communities as a means of developing positive attitude towards adoption of biogas technology