................................................................................................................................................. iv Abbreviations ......................................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables and Figures ...................................................................................................................... vii Table of Content .................................................................................................................................. viii Chapter One ............................................................................................................................................ 1 1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background ......................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................................. 6 1.3 Objectives and Research Questions .................................................................................................... 9 1.4 Justification for the Study ................................................................................................................. 10 Chapter Two-Literature Review ............................................................................................................ 12 2.0. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 12 2.1 Empirical Literature ........................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Theoretical Literature ....................................................................................................................... 18 2.3 Theoretical Framework: Innovation-Diffusion Theory ..................................................................... 21 2.4 Conceptual Model for this study ....................................................................................................... 22 Chapter Three ....................................................................................................................................... 25 3.0 Research Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 25 3.1 Research Design ................................................................................................................................ 25 3.2 Study site ........................................................................................................................................... 25 3.3 Unit of Analysis and Sampling ........................................................................................................... 27 3.4 Data Sources and Data Collection Methods ..................................................................................... 28 3.5 Data Analysis: .................................................................................................................................... 30 Strengths and Limitation of the Study .................................................................................................... 30 Chapter Four-Study Findings and Discussion ........................................................................................ 32 4.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 32 4.1 Question 1: What are the characteristics of a discontinuing farmer? .............................................. 32 4.1.1 Characteristics of the tissue culture farmer .......................................................................... 34 4.3 Question 2: What do farmers report as the reasons? ...................................................................... 37 4.3.1 Farmer Perception of Tissue Cultured Bananas ................................................................... 39 4.4 Question 3: What are the advantages of suckers over tissue cultured plantlets? ........................... 42 4.4.1 Advantages of Tissue Culture Plantlets ............................................................................... 42 4.4.2 Disadvantages of Tissue Culture Plantlets ........................................................................... 43