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Abstract
This study's objectives were to determine factors influencing smallholder farmers' adoption of a stall-feeding management system for
improved dairy cattle in semiarid Tanzania and other related technology packages. Heckman's two-stage procedure was used to determine
factors influencing participation in the project and the adoption of recommended management practices. Stall-feeding technology is
particularly attractive to those households with fewer resources particularly those that are female headed. Wealthier farmers, as measured by
area of land cultivated, are less likely to adopt the stall-feeding technology. Household labour is found to be important in determining the
degree to which the technology and associated management practices were adopted. Age of the household head has a positive impact on the
size of the intensive feed gardens. Different measures of extension-related contact are significant in influencing the potential for adopting
stall-fed technology, the number of stall-fed cattle kept, the probability of growing water melons, and the size of intensive feed gardens. The
implications are that research and extension messages with reference to the stall-feeding management system need to be targeted to specific
types of households (e.g., female farmers, those with children to provide labor, and limited resource farms). This supports the notion that
technology development and dissemination need to be sensitive not only to the characteristics of the biophysical environment but also to the
socioeconomic environment, which is often neglected. The study also demonstrates that in the poorer parts of the world where land is very
limited, a strategy for improving ecological sustainability can be linked closely to one for increasing agricultural productivity.