Miracle seeds: Biased expectations, complementary input use, and the dynamics of smallholder technology adoption

Miracle seeds: Biased expectations, complementary input use, and the dynamics of smallholder technology adoption PDF Author: Miehe, Caroline
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 27

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Book Description
To fully benefit from new agricultural technologies like improved seed varieties, significant investment in complementary inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, and practices such as systematic planting, irrigation, and weeding are also required. Farmers may fail to recognize the importance of these complements, leading to unsatisfactory crop yields and outputs and, eventually, dis-adoption of the variety. We provide a simple model of biased expectations, complementary input use and technology adoption and test its predictions using a field experiment among smallholder maize farmers in eastern Uganda. We find that pointing out the importance of complementary investments using a short, engaging video effectively deters some farmers from using commercial improved varieties. Consistent with the theoretical model, we find some evidence that this behavior change emanates from increased knowledge and expectations that are more in line with realized outcomes.

Miracle seeds: Biased expectations, complementary input use, and the dynamics of smallholder technology adoption

Miracle seeds: Biased expectations, complementary input use, and the dynamics of smallholder technology adoption PDF Author: Miehe, Caroline
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 27

Get Book

Book Description
To fully benefit from new agricultural technologies like improved seed varieties, significant investment in complementary inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, and practices such as systematic planting, irrigation, and weeding are also required. Farmers may fail to recognize the importance of these complements, leading to unsatisfactory crop yields and outputs and, eventually, dis-adoption of the variety. We provide a simple model of biased expectations, complementary input use and technology adoption and test its predictions using a field experiment among smallholder maize farmers in eastern Uganda. We find that pointing out the importance of complementary investments using a short, engaging video effectively deters some farmers from using commercial improved varieties. Consistent with the theoretical model, we find some evidence that this behavior change emanates from increased knowledge and expectations that are more in line with realized outcomes.

Miracle Seeds

Miracle Seeds PDF Author: Caroline Miehe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Agriculture, Diversification, and Gender in Rural Africa

Agriculture, Diversification, and Gender in Rural Africa PDF Author: Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198799284
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
This book contributes to the understanding of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa through addressing the dynamics of intensification and diversification within and outside agriculture in contexts where women have much poorer access to agrarian resources than men.

The New Harvest

The New Harvest PDF Author: Calestous Juma
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190237236
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa can feed itself in a generation and can help contribute to global food security. To achieve this Africa has to define agriculture as a force in economic growth by advancing scientific and technological research, investing in infrastructure, fostering higher technical training, and creating regional markets.

Consumption Risk, Technology Adoption, and Poverty Traps

Consumption Risk, Technology Adoption, and Poverty Traps PDF Author: Stefan Dercon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Much has been written on the determinants of input and technology adoption in agriculture, with issues such as input availability, knowledge and education, risk preferences, profitability, and credit constraints receiving much attention. This paper focuses on a factor that has been less well documented-the differential ability of households to take on risky production technologies for fear of the welfare consequences if shocks result in poor harvests. Building on an explicit model, this is explored in panel data for Ethiopia. Historical rainfall distributions are used to identify the counterfactual consumption risk. Controlling for unobserved household and time-varying village characteristics, it emerges that not just ex-ante credit constraints, but also the possibly low consumption outcomes when harvests fail, discourage the application of fertilizer. The lack of insurance causes inefficiency in production choices.

Agricultural Technologies and Tropical Deforestation

Agricultural Technologies and Tropical Deforestation PDF Author: Arild Angelsen
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 9780851998992
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
This book has been developed from a workshop on Technological change in agriculture and tropical deforestation organised by the Center for International Forestry Research and held in Costa Rica in March, 1999. It explores how intensification of agriculture affects tropical deforestation using case studies from different geographical regions, using different agricultural products and technologies and in differing demographic situations and market conditions. Guidance is also given on future agricultural research and extension efforts.

Structural change, fundamentals, and growth : a framework and case studies

Structural change, fundamentals, and growth : a framework and case studies PDF Author: McMillan, Margaret
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 0896292142
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description


Harvesting Prosperity

Harvesting Prosperity PDF Author: Keith Fuglie
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9781464813931
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book documents frontier knowledge on the drivers of agriculture productivity to derive pragmatic policy advice for governments and development partners on reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity. The analysis describes global trends and long-term sources of total factor productivity growth, along with broad trends in partial factor productivity for land and labor, revisiting the question of scale economies in farming. Technology is central to growth in agricultural productivity, yet across many parts of the developing world, readily available technology is never taken up. We investigate demand-side constraints of the technology equation to analyze factors that might influence producers, particularly poor producers, to adopt modern technology. Agriculture and food systems are rapidly transforming, characterized by shifting food preferences, the rise and growing sophistication of value chains, the increasing globalization of agriculture, and the expanding role of the public and private sectors in bringing about efficient and more rapid productivity growth. In light of this transformation, the analysis focuses on the supply side of the technology equation, exploring how the enabling environment and regulations related to trade and intellectual property rights stimulate Research and Development to raise productivity. The book also discusses emerging developments in modern value chains that contribute to rising productivity. This book is the fourth volume of the World Bank Productivity Project, which seeks to bring frontier thinking on the measurement and determinants of productivity to global policy makers.

Asian Rice Bowls

Asian Rice Bowls PDF Author: Prabhu L. Pingali
Publisher: Int. Rice Res. Inst.
ISBN: 0851991629
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Introduction: the state of rice in post-green-revolution Asia; Rice productivity growth: the case against complacency; Sustaining farm profits through technical change; Intensification-induced degradation of the paddy resource base; Erosion, pollution and poison: externalities and rice; Asian rice market: demand and supply prospects; GATT and rice: impact on the rice market and implications for research priorities; Agricultural commercialization and farmer product choices: the case of diversification out of rice; Strategic look at factor markets and the organization of agricultural production beyond 2025; Post-green-revolution seed technology for intensive rice systems; Fertilizers and pesticides: higher levels versus improved efficiencies; Dealing with labor scarcity: mechanical technologies.

Farming Systems in the Tropics

Farming Systems in the Tropics PDF Author: Hans Ruthenberg
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural systems
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Some general charscteristics of farming in a tropical environment; Shifting cultivation systems; Fallow systems; Ley systems; Systems with permanent upland cultivation; Systems with arable irrigation farming; Systems with perennial crops; Grazing systems; General tendences in the development of tropical farm systems.