Technology Adoption under Uncertainty: Take-Up and Subsequent Investment in Zambia

Jack, B. Kelsey; Oliva, Paulina; Severen, Christopher; Walker, Elizabeth; Bell, Samuel D.

doi:10.1162/rest_a_00823

Cited by 26 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Once a new technology is created, its adoption depends on the diffusion of associated knowledge. The speed of technology diffusion has been the subject of much interest (Griliches ; Batz, Peters, and Janssen ; Rogers ; Marra, Pannell, and Ghadim ; Abdulai and Huffman ; Genius et al ; Oliva et al Forthcoming). As stressed in the previous section, this diffusion depends on learning.…”

Section: Innovations and Technology Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncertainty, Learning, and Technology Adoption in Agriculture

Chavas¹,

Nauges²

2020

Applied Eco Perspectives Pol

207

103

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Adoption of agricultural innovations has been an important factor affecting the welfare of farmers, the productivity of agriculture and the economics of the food sector. This paper reviews the literature on technology adoption in agriculture with a focus on the role of uncertainty and learning. It examines the factors affecting adoption benefits for farmers and their linkages with the innovation process. It also discusses the welfare implications of innovation and adoption for farmers and consumers.

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Section: Innovations and Technology Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncertainty, Learning, and Technology Adoption in Agriculture

Chavas¹,

Nauges²

2020

Applied Eco Perspectives Pol

207

103

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“…For economists interested in understanding adoption, on the other hand, the results point to the importance of understanding the differences in trial designs and the extent of control by researchers. Development economists, who often refer to such results as evidence for the promise of new technologies do not necessarily make this distinction [32][33][34][35][36][37][38] . The need for a management adjustment, for instance, is likely to be less important for trials that can be classified as collegial in the Biggs classification, while they are possibly more important for contractual trials 12 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciling yield gains in agronomic trials with returns under African smallholder conditions

Laajaj

Macours

Masso

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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increased adoption of improved agricultural technologies is considered an essential step to address global poverty and hunger, and agronomic trials suggest intensification in developing countries could result in large yield gains. Yet the promise of new technologies does not always carry over from trials to real-life conditions, and diffusion of many technologies remains limited. We show how parcel and farmer selection, together with behavioural responses in agronomic trials, can explain why yield gain estimates from trials may differ from the yield gains of smallholders using the same inputs under real-life conditions. We provide quantitative evidence by exploiting variation in farmer selection and detailed data collection from research trials in Western Kenya on which large yield increments were observed from improved input packages for maize and soybean. After adjusting for selection, behavioural responses, and other corrections, estimates of yield gains fall to being not significantly different from zero for the input package tested on one of the crops (soybean), but remain high for the other (maize). These results suggest that testing new agricultural technologies in real-world conditions and without researcher interference early in the agricultural research and development process might help with identifying which innovations are more likely to be taken up at scale.

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“…RCTs involving private smallholders in Uganda (162) and Zambia (163) have investigated the impacts of payments linked to short-run seedling survival. In Uganda, the payments significantly increased not only survival but also the share of households that planted trees and the mean area and mean number of trees they planted.…”

Section: Payments For Ecosystem Services Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If landholders are well-informed and participate voluntarily in PES programs, then one would not expect participation to negatively affect them. Landholders do not have perfect foresight, however, and they might not understand tree-planting technologies well (163). Both reasons could cause them to lose income even if they participate voluntarily in FR PES programs.…”

Section: Payments For Ecosystem Services Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Restoration in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Vincent

Curran

Ashton

2021

Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour.

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A series of international initiatives have set ambitious goals for restoring global forests. This review synthesizes natural and social science research on forest restoration (FR), with a focus on restoration on cleared land in low- and middle-income countries. We define restoration more broadly than reestablishing native forests, given that landholders might prefer other forest types. We organize the review loosely around ideas in the forest transition literature. We begin by examining recent trends in FR and forest transition indicators. We then investigate two primary parts of the forest transition explanation for forest recovery: wood scarcity, including its connection to restoration for climate change mitigation, and the dynamic relationships between migration and land use. Next, we review ecological and silvicultural aspects of restoration on cleared land. We conclude by discussing selected interventions to promote restoration and the challenge of scaling up restoration to achieve international goals. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 46 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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Technology Adoption under Uncertainty: Take-Up and Subsequent Investment in Zambia

Cited by 26 publications

References 47 publications

Uncertainty, Learning, and Technology Adoption in Agriculture

Uncertainty, Learning, and Technology Adoption in Agriculture

Reconciling yield gains in agronomic trials with returns under African smallholder conditions

Forest Restoration in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

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