TABLE 1. Adoption category by level of agricultural training received.


 Adoption Level of Agricultural Training Received
 Adoption---- -- ---- -- ---
 Category None Other Field School Total
 Days Garden

 Adopters 19 1 3 12 35
 Non-Adopters 26 2 5 2 35


 T o t a 1 45 3 8 14 70

 X2 (0.05) = 12.06 Three (3) degrees of freedom
 Probability at the .001 level



 The innovation to be adopted was the hand tractor. The
dependent variable was the adoption of the hand tractor by
vegetable farmers. The indicators used to measure this variable
were as follows:
 Adopters: those farmers who had purchased the hand trac-
 tor.
 Non-Adopters: those farmers who had not purchased the
 hand tractor.
 The independent variables were treated as follows:

Personal and social variables
 1. Age: Was used to identify any possible trends in the
 population and to match non-adopters with adopters.
 2. Ethnic background: This was also used for identification
 and compilation of the sample.
 3. Level offormal education: Attendance at any institution
 of learning ranging from primary to tertiary.
 4. Level of agricultural training: Exposure to information
 and techniques specifically related to agriculture.
 5. Size of household: Taken to be the nuclear family unit.
 The following categories were use: Small--2 persons and
 less; Medium- 3 to 5 persons; and Large 6 and more per-
 sons.
 6. Attachment to agricultural organizations: Whether a
 farmer is a member of an organized farmers' group and at-
 tendance at meetings were determined.
 7. Source of information: Refers to the number of contacts
 by which a farmer obtained his initial exposure to the in-
 novation.

Farm related variables
 1. Farm size: The number of hectares cultivated by the
 farmer on a regular basis. The following categories were
 used: Small-less than 1 ha; Medium-1 to 2.2 ha; and
 Large-more than 2.2 ha.
 2. Tenure: Security of tenure was classified into five
 categories: family land, rental, leasehold ownership,
 freehold ownership, and other.
 3. Praedial larceny: Respondents' perception of the level of
 loss from their farms.
 4. Home to farm distance: This variable was also used in mat-
 ching respondents for the sample.
 5. Time spent in farming: The respondent's perception of
 the proportion of the day actually spent on the farm.
 6. Use of Family Labour: This was taken as an indication of
 the amount of manual labour available to the farmer.
 7. Use ofHiredLabour: This factor was used to determine the
 extent to which farmers utilized hired labour. Two or less
 man days per week was classified as low. More than 4 man
 days per week was regarded as high.


TABLE 2. Adoption category by number of contacts used as source of information.


 Adoption Number of Contacts
 Category One Two Three Four & Total
 Above

 Adopters 2 8 22 3 35
 Non-Adopters 4 16 12 3 35

 To t a 1 6 24 34 6 70

 X2 (0.05) = 13.2 Three (3) degrees of freedom
 Probability at the .01 level



 Innovation related variables
 1. Custom use of large tractor: It was assumed that the level
 of acceptance of the hand tractor was affected by the extent
 to which farming operations were hired out to large trac-
 tors.
 2. Relative advantage of the innovation: The following four
 sub-dimensions of relative advantage were measured by
 the perception of respondents: saving of time and effort;
 low initial cost; lower perceived risk; and degree of
 economic profitability.
 A 34-question interview schedule was designed to obtain infor-
 mation covering the independent variables listed above. Data
 giving other characteristics of the population were also included.
 Use was made of fixed alternative and open ended questions. Per-
 sonal questions were placed towards the end of the interview
 schedule in order to minimize the amount of information that
 would be lost should the interview be terminated as a result of
 these questions.
 Based on a literature review and the theoretical framework, the
 following hypotheses were proposed for testing:
 The adoption of hand tractors by vegetable farmers is positively
 related to:
 1. level of formal education of adopters;
 2. level of agricultural training of adopters;
 3. level of attachment to agricultural organization;
 4. land tenure of adopters;
 5. time spent in farming as perceived by adopters;
 6. level of use of family labour as perceived by adopters; and
 7. the following subdimensions of relative advantage of the
 innovation as perceived by adopters: a saving of time and
 effort; low initial cost; lower risk; and degree of economic
 profitability.
 The adoption of hand tractors by vegetable farmers is negatively
related to:
 1. size of household of adopters;
 2. farm size of adopters;
 3. level of praedial larceny from the farm; and
 4. custom use of large tractors.
 The adoption of hand tractors by vegetable farmers is related to:
 1. the source of information of adopters; and
 2. the level of utilisation of hired labour by adopters.
 The hypotheses were tested by the chi square test which was
used to examine the relationships between different factors.

Results and Discussion
 The respondents ranged in age from 27 to 56 years old and
74.3% of the respondents were 40 years old and above. Sixty-
nine respondents (98.6%) were of East Indian descent. Since
these two variables were used to classify the respondents no con-
clusion with regards to adoption can be made.


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