Enhancing adoption of agricultural technologies requiring high initial investment among smallholders

Yigezu, Yigezu A.; Mugera, Amin; El‐Shater, Tamer; Aw‐Hassan, Aden; Piggin, C.; Haddad, Atef; Khalil, Yaseen; Loss, S. P.

doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2018.06.006

Cited by 127 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…There is also skepticism in the literature [18,30] as to whether printed pictures alone can help smallholder farmers in the absence of discussions about farmers' first-hand experience, particularly interpersonal communication involving other farmers or specialists such as extension agents. These results are consistent with previous studies showing that if a farmer directly observes the benefits of a product/practice, it is more accepted [52,53]. That said, some of the high favorable percentages reported in this study should still be viewed skeptically because, often in the Nepalese culture, men and especially women do not like to directly make negative statements to others [54].…”

Section: Participatory Editing and Increased Understanding Of Picturesupporting

confidence: 92%

“…One possible explanation is that farmers are able to better understand tools/practices that they have previously directly observed or used rather than seeing them for the first time. This interpretation is consistent with Yigezu et al [52] (p. 6) in their study on the adoption of zero technologies in Syria, where smallholder farmers quickly accepted and practiced an innovation that they could see and try by themselves compared to other innovations that they had only heard about from others. In our study, there was also a difference between control and test farmers in terms of how useful they perceived the lessons to be (Figure 9), which would imply that extension agent interactions or the combined use of ICTs enabling interaction (e.g., media convergence of the picture lessons with a TV/radio interview with a farmer) may be important.…”

Section: Participatory Editing and Increased Understanding Of Picturesupporting

confidence: 90%

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Evaluating the Effectiveness of Picture-Based Agricultural Extension Lessons Developed Using Participatory Testing and Editing with Smallholder Women Farmers in Nepal

et al. 2020

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Printed pictures are traditional forms of agricultural extension for smallholder farmers. They receive historical academic criticism but remain inexpensive, do not require technical skills (unlike smartphones), and bypass language/literacy barriers. Here, a comprehensive participatory pipeline is described that included 56 Nepalese women farmer editors to develop 100 picture-based lessons. Thereafter, the Theory of Planned Behavior is used as a framework to evaluate 20 diverse lessons using quantitative and qualitative data (Nvivo-11) collected from four groups, focusing on low-literacy women: the women farmer editors (n = 56); smallholder field testers who had prior exposure to extension agents and the actual innovations (control group, n = 120), and those who did not (test group, n = 60); expert stakeholders (extension agents/scientists, n = 25). The expected comprehension difference between farmer groups was non-substantive, suggesting that the participatory editing/testing approaches were effective. There were surprising findings compared to the academic literature: smallholders comprehended the pictures without the help of extension agents, perhaps because of the participatory approaches used; children assisted their mothers to understand caption-based lessons; the farmers preferred printed pictures compared to advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs); and the resource-poor farmers were willing to pay for the printed materials, sufficient to make them cost-neutral/scalable. These findings have implications for smallholder farmers beyond Nepal.

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Section: Participatory Editing and Increased Understanding Of Picturesupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Participatory Editing and Increased Understanding Of Picturesupporting

confidence: 90%

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Picture-Based Agricultural Extension Lessons Developed Using Participatory Testing and Editing with Smallholder Women Farmers in Nepal

et al. 2020

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“…These variables were used in the selection equation of the ESR model as determinants of farmers' adoption decisions on rotation and improved faba bean varieties. The choice of the explanatory variables was based on basic agronomic and socio-economic principles and the literature (Yigezu et al 2018a;El-Shater et al 2016).…”

Section: Explaining the Low Individual And Joint Adoption Of Improvedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legume-based rotations have clear economic advantages over cereal monocropping in dry areas

Yigezu¹,

El‐Shater

Boughlala³

et al. 2019

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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Current land use trends show an increasing preference for monocroppingmostly a consequence of policies and incentives aimed at enhancing the intensification of cereals. This shift has caused some to question whether legume-cereal rotations can remain economically viable options for farmers, particularly in the dry areas. In this paper, we present the results of an endogenous switching regression model which suggests, for the first time, that legume-cereal rotations have clear economic advantages over cereal monocropping. Rotations provide higher yields, gross margins, and consumption of wheat and faba beans. Most past economic analyses on rotation used data from experimental stations or small-sized farmer surveys covering only one season and variety. This study makes an important improvement by employing two-year data from a large sample of 1230 farm households and their 2643 fields cultivated with different varieties of wheat and faba beans in the wheat-based production system of Morocco. Assuming a biennial rotationthe fastest cycle possible in a rainfed dryland system, this paper is also the first to demonstrate that joint adoption of rotations and improved faba bean varieties leads to a two-year average gross margin that is US$537/ha (48%) higher than wheat monocropping. This is the highest economic benefit of all available cropping options. A striking result of the study is that, contrary to common expectations, adopters of rotation did not use lesser amounts of nitrogen fertilizer than those monocropping wheat, thereby undermining the ecological benefits of faba bean-wheat rotations. Given that current average applications are below marginal product-maximizing levels, higher marginal yields of nitrogen fertilizers after rotation help explain farmers' current behavior. Our results suggest that: 1) promoting improved legume varieties may enhance adoption of rotation; and 2) an economic rationale should be used as the main driver of the rotation agenda in the dry areas.

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“…Significant differences exist in the supply and demand of agricultural technologies and farmers' technology choice behavior, and it takes time for first-time users to learn to apply new techniques into practice [55]. Thus, only having the willingness is not enough.…”

Section: Reasons For the Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Farmers Make Investment Decisions: Evidence from a Farmer Survey in China

et al. 2019

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Based on the grain production data hand collected in Mid-East China, a multinomial Logit model was employed to analyze factors that are critical to farmers’ investment decisions in food production. Reasonable explanations are provided to help understand differences between expected farmers’ investments in grain production and the actual results. It was found that the cost of machinery and the number of farmers is key factors affecting farmers’ willingness to adjust investment. Further research shows that most of the farmers who had the willingness to adjust investment did not implement the adjustments in the short-term. From the micro-adaptability expectation perspective, the time that it takes to adjust the planting area could explain farmers’ investment adjustment intention and the behavior. From the macro-investment perspective, short-term output elasticity of physical capital is less than long-term output elasticity. The differences between farmers’ willingness to invest and the actual results are therefore generated. These findings suggest that it is necessary to strengthen the application of big data technology in agriculture in order to improve the platforms’ efficiency in data releasing and reaching out to farmers to provide more accurate advice regarding investment adjustment.

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Enhancing adoption of agricultural technologies requiring high initial investment among smallholders

Cited by 127 publications

References 27 publications

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Picture-Based Agricultural Extension Lessons Developed Using Participatory Testing and Editing with Smallholder Women Farmers in Nepal

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Picture-Based Agricultural Extension Lessons Developed Using Participatory Testing and Editing with Smallholder Women Farmers in Nepal

Legume-based rotations have clear economic advantages over cereal monocropping in dry areas

How Farmers Make Investment Decisions: Evidence from a Farmer Survey in China

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