Limitations to the adoption of artificial insemination by dairy farmers in Bundibugyo district :

Abstract

Artificial insemination (A.I) is the technique of transferring semen containing viable spermatozoa collected from male animals into the reproductive tract of the female animals to facilitate conception without natural sexual intercourse, the technique has had its presence in Uganda for over 60 years, but less than 10% of the country’s herd population has been using this technology. This research aimed to identify and understand the key limitations that hinder the widespread adoption of AI in Busaru sub-county Bundibugyo district using a multi stage random sampling procedure, 102 respondents were selected from 3 parishes and 34 farmers from the parishes of Bugombwa, Kirindi, and Basaru. From the study, only 19.4% of the farmers use artificial insemination. Farmer’s knowledge about the technology also stood at 51% and from the 51% of the respondents who were knowledgeable about artificial insemination, 36.5% use the technology. The results also indicate that out of 36.5% of the respondents who use artificial insemination method, 36.8% use the method always which is the smaller percentage as compared to 63.2% of the respondents who opt to use the method according to their wish. The low adoption of Artificial insemination was attributed to various factors such as the service being too expensive to farmers, the service not being available, other farmers said the process is not reliable, some farmers could not also detect the signs of heat themselves, others cited poor pregnancy results for not using the method, religious and cultural barriers also limited other farmers, some farmers also feared that the process could harm their animals, while some advocates for animal rights did not also participate in the process. Furthermore, a small group of farmers just hated the process and this could also influence the prevalent reliance on traditional methods. Key words: Artificial insemination, breeding, Busaru sub-county, adoption, limitations, and dairy production.