Berhanu, Abeje(PhDYekoyesew, Dawit2022-03-282023-11-182022-03-282023-11-182010-07http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/30914New agricultural technologies are important in improving the. well-being of rural households in Ethiopia. However, there are many factors affecting adoption of these technologies in the country. Researches dealing with adoption of agricultural technologies focus on the effect of demographic, socio-economic, agro-ecological and institutional factors which limit many farm households from taking advantage of crops technology package in Ethiopia. However, inadequate attention is given to geographical and social contexts in which poverty occurs to identify factors in a give society that influences farmers' decisions to adopt. In this study poverty was conceptualized in Tarmab er Woreda of North Shoa following Robert Chambers' theory of deprivation with the objective to explore factors responsible for farmers' use and non-use of improved seeds and chemical fertilizers. Here, the subjective judgments of farmers about what constitutes well-being in their own communities were given due attention to classify households into worse-off/poor, medium and better-off/rich. The study was undertaken in three purposefully selected rural Kebeles of the district namely Koso-ber, Yitam-na-kosta and Yizaba-na-woyin. Knowledgeable individuals from 35 gott of these Kebeles were selected. A total of 35 key informants 'Were included to assign farm households in the respective Kebeles into worse-off/poor, medium and better off/rich based on such indicators as land size, livestock holdings (mainly oxen for ploughing), the number of times that a family fe eds its members per day, housing conditions, land renting and/or sharecropping arrangement, household labour force availability, loan status, membership of cooperatives and ability to send children to school. Out of 2120 farm households, worse-off/poor, medium and better-off/rich households constitute 41.5%. 52.2% and 6.7% respectively. Income loss, vulnerability to crop failure and asset depletion, physical weakness, social isolation and powerlessness are locally believed causes of poverty. After well-being ranking was completed, a cross-section sample of 125 farm households were selected from worse-off/poor, medium and better-off/rich households based on a two-stage stratified random sampling using Proportional Probability to Size (PPS) method. The survey result shows that educational status, size of land holding, membership of cooperatives, ownership of radio, how often farmers attend agricultural related programs, reading pamphlet and perceived distance of the market were found to be significant positive correlates of adoption of chemical fertilizers and improved seeds. The findings of this study call for the need of policy interventions. The policy that aims at achieving poverty reduction should consider local-level situation of poverty across sub social groups (i.e. male and female). The extension services should reinforce how farmers diversify their income beyond convincing them to use agricultural technologies. The family package program should be strengthened to tackle pressure of population on land. The public services should reach poor households in remote area. This finding also suggests areas of interest like panel study of adoption decision of farmers, the relationship between big population size and poverty, market failure and adoption of extension inputs and comparing rural households near to town with the one in remote Kebeles for future study in the study area.enThesis