Abstract

The global quest for a sustainable bio-economy has brought to the fore importance of engaging agricultural systems in the production and in practice change. There have been issues limiting farmers from improving the practice of manure management as smart climate technology. The objective of this paper was to highlight the constraints, type, and valuation of manure types and information sources that smallholder dairy farmers find it useful to change practices regarding manure management. In this present study, 336 smallholder dairy farmers were surveyed on various constraints the farmers faced and, on the type, and value of different manure types and information on manure management received by the farmers. The study used descriptive statistics for the variables and compared them using frequency tables. The key findings from this study would support information to stakeholders in inducing climate-smart manure management practices as a climate adaptation practice. The study highlights the type of information systems that determine areas for further investigation as drivers of practice change for smallholder dairy farmers. The paper focuses on these constraints and synthesizes them into factors that determine practice change on manure management by smallholder dairy farmers in order to improve manure management.

Key words: Manure management, agricultural information, smallholder dairy farmers, practice change, information value.