Farmer innovation diffusion via network building: a case of winter greenhouse diffusion in China

Abstract

Farmer innovation diffusion (FID) in the developing world is not simply the adoption of an innovation made by farmers, but a process of communication and cooperation between farmers, governments, and other stakeholders. While increasing attention has been paid to farmer innovation, little is known about how farmers' innovations are successfully diffused. To fill this gap, this paper aims to address the following questions: What conditions are necessary for farmers to participate in FID? How is a collaborative network built up between farmers and stakeholders for this purpose? And what roles can government play? The above questions are addressed through analysis of the diffusion of winter greenhouse technology in China. A framework for analyzing a FID system is developed, and the conclusion is drawn that building mutual trust and collaborative networks is crucial for the success of FID. Furthermore, this network building can be broken down into various levels with different scales, speeds and consequences for FID: informal networks among farmers themselves, farmer-led networks, and government-facilitated networks. The success of government intervention depends upon building and enhancing the collaborative networks in which farmer leadership is crucial.

Impact of information technology innovation on firm performance in Kenya

“…According to Jong and Vermeulen (2006), innovation intensity is a process in which innovative inputs are transformed into innovative outputs through a process that involves human knowledge and labor to generate new or improved products, services, or work processes (Jong, 2000). According to Wu and Zhang (2013) IT innovation in agriculture is concerned with the use of any technology, invention or improvement made by farmers to cope with the complexity of local resource, ecological, economic and social conditions. For instance, the use of artificial insemination (AI) in case of livestock rearing or use of hybrid seed in case of crop production (Coudel, Devautour, Faure, Hubert, & Soulard, 2017;Wu & Zhang, 2013).…”

“…According to Wu and Zhang (2013) IT innovation in agriculture is concerned with the use of any technology, invention or improvement made by farmers to cope with the complexity of local resource, ecological, economic and social conditions. For instance, the use of artificial insemination (AI) in case of livestock rearing or use of hybrid seed in case of crop production (Coudel, Devautour, Faure, Hubert, & Soulard, 2017;Wu & Zhang, 2013).…”

“…The first measured the respondents' biodata and firm background information (age, experience, education, firm age, industry or sector, legal registration status, firm size, and firm location). The second measured the independent variable constructs: technological context (compatibility, complexity, and relative advantage), technology innovation (product, process, and market innovations Coudel et al, 2017;Wu & Zhang, 2013), organizational structure, owner-manager innovativeness, and environmental factors.…”

Modeling the effect of social networks on adoption of multifunctional agriculture

“…Such strategies, in which development goals are conceptualized as emergent properties of networks, are beginning to appear widely in agricultural extension work (Ison et al, 2012; Schneider et al, 2012) that is addressing transformation in agriculture. Examples of such emergent properties include resilience in Tasmanian sheep production (Hunt et al, 2011), diffusion of farmer innovation in winter greenhouse horticulture in China (Wu and Zhang, 2013), and coordinated innovation in tillage systems in Switzerland (Schneider et al 2012). In these cases, extension and development workers searched for effective network configurations and considered how multi-stakeholder efforts could support and extend these configurations.…”

3. Making Microcredit

“…For more details on 'model tourism' see (Ahlers & Schubert, 2013). For more on vegetable greenhouses see (Wu & Zhang, 2013). interest.…”