In south Tigray in general and Enda mehoni district in particular, there is inadequate empirical evidence and systematic documentations related to chickpea varieties adoption. Hence, this study aim to assess the determinants of chickpea varieties adoption by smallholder farmers’ for newly introduced varieties (Desi and Kubli). Both of the Desi and kubli types of chickpea were introduced by governmental and non-governmental organizations. For this study, data were collected from a total of 223 sampled households from Enda mehoni District. Descriptive statistics like frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviations and inferential statistics such as t-test and χ2-test were employed to see mean difference and association, respectively, between both adoption categories. The result of the descriptive statistics shows that, from the total seventeen variables, nine of them were significant at 1%, 5% and 10% probability level between the adoption categories. Binary logit econometrics model was employed to identify the influence of hypothesized explanatory variables. The study found adoption of chickpea varieties are significantly influenced by household size, mobile phone access, residence of the household and training participation of the head of the household. Hence, awareness creation through organizing trainings and strengthening the linkage between farmers-to-farmers with mobile phone owners is better if concerned governmental and non-governmental organizations considered for further chickpea varieties adoption. In addition, it is equally important to targeting domain areas of dissemination and community based joint actions to facilitate chickpea varieties adoption in Enda mehoni district, South Tigray, Ethiopia.

Keywords: Adoption, Binary logit, Chickpea, determinants, Desi, Kubli