Abstract

With the increased use of technology in agriculture, new improved farming and varieties of seeds have been adopted. The study explored how the interaction among the actors helped in sharing vital information on market shares of improved cowpea and relative to improved beans. A cross-sectional research design was used, while quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted. The respondents were purposively selected because of their expert knowledge in the study. The findings showed, that beans and cowpea enterprise had 0.23 (23%), and 0.14 (14%) interaction density, while 23 and 16 actors participated in the promotion of beans and cowpea enterprises respectively. The findings also show that as a cowpea entrepreneur a farmer is the most influential and dominant actor in providing and using information while in the bean’s enterprise, extension service providers stood out as the most influential actor and the farmers remain the most dominant actor. Fellow farmers showed higher influence and dominance in providing and sharing information and other services regarding cowpea. Cowpea was a more profitable and viable enterprise. The study recommends that researchers and other actors should engage in the promotion of improved technologies. There should be increased interaction amongst actors and this creates product loyalty and promotes channel distribution. The actors should also provide and share relevant and timely information regarding agronomic, post-harvest practices, potential market opportunities, and other services.

Key words: Actor’s interaction, innovation systems, improved technology, market shares, improved cowpea.