Gendered Social Networks, Agricultural Innovations, and Farm Productivity in Ethiopia

Mekonnen, Daniel Ayalew; Gerber, Nicolas; Matz, Julia Anna

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.04.020

Cited by 61 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…As expected, farmers with blood relations (kinship) were likely to report both credit and food sharing links compared to their non-related counterparts. This finding is similar to that reported by Muange and Schwarze (2014) and Mekonnen, Gerber, and Matz (2016). Similarly, farmers whose farms bordered each other were more likely to mention a food link than their counterparts who did not share farm boundaries.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Gender difference was negatively correlated with existence of both credit and food sharing links, implying that farmers of the same gender are more likely to form both links than those of different gender. The results are supported by the findings of Van den Broeck and Dercon (2011) and Mekonnen, Gerber, and Matz (2016), but contradict the findings of De Weerdt and Fafchamps (2011). This contradiction could imply that the effects of gender on network formation depend on the type of network being studied.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 50%

“…These effects suggest that food and credit links are more likely to be formed within age groups perhaps because of different lifestyles which might moderate social interactions across groups. Van den Broeck and Dercon (2011), Fafchamps and Gubert (2007) and Mekonnen, Gerber, and Matz (2016) found similar results on the effect of age difference but the result is at odds with De Weerdt and Fafchamps (2011), implying that the effect of age on social network formation may depend on type of network.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…It was measured by summing both off-farm and on-farm annual incomes for the households. Education, age and gender were also included as proxies for social distance, because networks are also structured along age groups and education levels and gender of the agents (Muange and Schwarze 2014;Mekonnen, Gerber, and Matz 2016). The expectation is that such networks are formed by households that are similar to each other with regard to education and age to reduce the cost of enforcement.…”

Section: Key Variables and Their Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Social networks andex postrisk management among smallholder farmers in Kenya

Mbugua

Nzuma

Muange

2019

Development Studies Research

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Smallholder farmers in developing countries are vulnerable to idiosyncratic and covariate risks. The risks affect their welfare through the shocks they impose on income, assets, health and food supply. To cope with these shocks, smallholder farmers have extensively relied on informal risk management strategies such as social networks, due to the poorly developed or missing formal insurance markets. Social networks play a risk-sharing role through transfers (loans and gifts) within the networks. This paper evaluates the factors influencing the formation of financial and non-financial networks as informal insurance strategies, using cross-sectional data collected from 815 households in Kenya and analysed using a dyadic linear probability model. Results show that kinship, geographical proximity, education and age are important determinants of both financial and non-financial links. Health shock is also correlated with the formation of financial links. The findings suggest that financial links play a risk-sharing role when farmers are faced with health shocks. The paper concludes that financial networks act as insurance against idiosyncratic health shocks.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 50%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Key Variables and Their Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social networks andex postrisk management among smallholder farmers in Kenya

Mbugua

Nzuma

Muange

2019

Development Studies Research

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“…Agricultural extension is a major source of information but it is weak in many developing countries (Anderson & Feder 2007). Other sources of agricultural information and knowledge include informal channels such as social networks of neighbors and peers (Mekonnen et al, 2016). Social interactions become important in shaping production decisions in smallholder agriculture in the absence of extension services (Davis & Place, 2003).…”

Section: Social Interactions In Technology Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk and Social Interactions in the Adoption of Improved Dairy Breeds by Smallholder Farmers in Kenya

Kimani

2017

ESJ

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This study investigates the role of production risk and social interaction in the adoption of improved dairy breeds by smallholder farmers in Kenya. In agricultural production outputs are uncertain and they may turn out to be favorable or unfavorable. Therefore, farmers may not always get the output they expect to produce. Deviation from expected output constitutes production risk. This form of risk is said to hinder the adoption of yield increasing technologies. Farmers rarely have complete information about the performance of new agricultural technologies. Lack of perfect information about the performance of new technologies may as well hinder adoption. To fill the information gap farmers seek to acquire information through formal and informal sources. Informal sources include social interations with peers and neighbors. Flexible moments method is used to derive production risk variables. The mean values of selected variables of a reference group defined at village level are used as proxies for social interactions. The study applies three different methods, probit, two-stage instrumental variable, and control function on cross-sectional data collected from a sample of 373 smallholder farmers to evaluate role of risk and social interactions in the adoption of improved dairy breeds. The finding shows that endogenous social interactions as measured by proportion of improved breeds' adopters in a reference group have positive and significant effect on adoption of improved dairy breeds. Production risk as measured by variance and skewness of milk output is found to have negative and significant effects of adoption of improved dairy breeds.

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Gender, social networks, and the use of organic fertilizers toward sustainable agriculture in suburban villages of Central Vietnam

Le,

Shimamura,

Yamada

et al. 2024

Sustainable Development

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Farmland degradation caused by excessive use of agrochemicals is a serious environmental concern, and thus the use of organic fertilizers is encouraged for sustainable agriculture in Vietnam. However, the adoption of organic fertilizers among farming households has been slow, spontaneous, and fragmented. The absence of credible information and advisory sources is reported to be a critical constraint. The sharing of information and experiences among social networks is expected to play an important role in overcoming this constraint, although strong causal evidence remains scarce. Therefore, this study employs an instrumental variable approach with observational village‐census data to identify the causal impacts of social networks on the adoption of organic fertilizers and explores the underlying information‐sharing mechanism within social networks, providing rich information about existing social networks for both men and women separately. The estimation results show that in farming households, the wife's social networks have a positive and significant effect on the diffusion of organic fertilizers. Our findings highlight the role of information exchange, experience sharing, and agricultural collaboration among groups of women in enhancing pro‐environmental agricultural practices in suburban villages of Central Vietnam.

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Gendered Social Networks, Agricultural Innovations, and Farm Productivity in Ethiopia

Cited by 61 publications

References 37 publications

Social networks andex postrisk management among smallholder farmers in Kenya

Social networks andex postrisk management among smallholder farmers in Kenya

Risk and Social Interactions in the Adoption of Improved Dairy Breeds by Smallholder Farmers in Kenya

Gender, social networks, and the use of organic fertilizers toward sustainable agriculture in suburban villages of Central Vietnam

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