Understanding the role of social capital in adoption decisions: An application to irrigation technology

Hunecke, Claudia; Engler, Alejandra; Jara‐Rojas, Roberto; Poortvliet, P. Marijn

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2017.02.002

Cited by 166 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

108

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Rodriguez et al [47] pointed out that a lack of information on irrigation, crop management, the effectiveness of practices and government programs could be common obstacles for resource-limited farmers when facing the uncertainty of changing to something unknown. On the other hand, effective information can facilitate optimal irrigation decisions by farmers [48]. Frisvold and Deva [49] studied water information used by irrigators and the relationship of information acquisition and irrigation management.…”

Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Crop Production Decisions and Economic Irrigation Water Use Efficiency: The Effects of Water Costs, Pressure Irrigation Adoption, and Climatic Determinants

Fan¹,

Massey

Park³

2018

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In an irrigated multi-crop production system, farmers make decisions on the land allocated to each crop, and the subsequent irrigation water application, which determines the crop yield and irrigation water use efficiency. This study analyzes the effects of the multiple factors on farmers’ decision making and economic irrigation water use efficiency (EIWUE) using a national dataset from the USDA Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey. To better deal with the farm-level data embedded in each state of the U.S., multilevel models are employed, which permit the incorporation of state-level variables in addition to the farm-level factors. The results show higher costs of surface water are not effective in reducing water use, while groundwater costs show a positive association with water use on both corn and soybean farms. The adoption of pressure irrigation systems reduces the soybean water use and increases the soybean yield. A higher EIWUE can be achieved with the adoption of enhanced irrigation systems on both corn and soybean farms. A high temperature promotes more the efficient water use and higher yield, and a high precipitation is associated with lower water application and higher crop yield. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) suggest a moderate variability in water application and EIWUE is accounted by the state-level factors with ICC values greater than 0.10.

show abstract

Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Crop Production Decisions and Economic Irrigation Water Use Efficiency: The Effects of Water Costs, Pressure Irrigation Adoption, and Climatic Determinants

Fan¹,

Massey

Park³

2018

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Awareness is limited by factors such as women's mobility and access to information and extension services that would help them learn what technologies are available, how to acquire them, and how to 1 3 use them (Doss et al 2003;Ragasa et al 2014). Tryout is limited by access to and control over the land, water, labor, inputs, and other assets required to use the technology (Ani et al 2004;Drechsel et al 2006;Meinzen-Dick et al 2011;Ragasa et al 2014;Johnson et al 2016); access to capital or credit to invest in the technology (Tiwari 2010;Ragasa et al 2014;Doss et al 2003;Olwande et al 2009); access to social networks, learning, and social capital to reduce perceived risks associated with technology adoption (Conley and Udry 2001;Magnan et al 2014;Hunecke et al 2017); and appropriateness of design, including affordability, cultural acceptability, and suitability for women's specific agricultural tasks and physical requirements (Quisumbing and Pandolfelli 2010). Thus, many of the constraints that technology promises to alleviate are the same constraints that hamper adoption in the first place.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What happens after technology adoption? Gendered aspects of small-scale irrigation technologies in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Diverse agricultural technologies are promoted to increase yields and incomes, save time, improve food and nutritional security, and even empower women. Yet a gender gap in technology adoption remains for many agricultural technologies, even for those that are promoted for women. This paper complements the literature on gender and technology adoption, which largely focuses on reasons for low rates of female technology adoption, by shifting attention to what happens within a household after it adopts a technology. Understanding the expected benefits and costs of adoption, from the perspective of women users in households with adult males, can help explain observed technology adoption rates and why technology adoption is often not sustained in the longer term. Drawing on qualitative data from Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania, this paper develops a framework for examining the intrahousehold distribution of benefits from technology adoption, focusing on small-scale irrigation technologies. The framework contributes to the conceptual and empirical exploration of joint control over technology by men and women in the same household. Efforts to promote technology adoption for agricultural development and women's empowerment would benefit from an understanding of intrahousehold control over technology to avoid interpreting technology adoption as an end in and of itself.

show abstract

“…These challenges call for holistic interventions that are sustainable, promote a safe environment, and ultimately increase production output. Thus, a practice with zero environmental and human hazards which have literatures converging [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] on its capability to use renewable local farm resources for sustainable and increased production output is called conservative agriculture (CA).…”

Section: Background Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Capital and Adoption of Alternative Conservation Agricultural Practices in South-Western Nigeria

Olawuyi

Mushunje

2019

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The major concern of most African countries, including Nigeria, in recent times is how to increase food production because of food insecurity issues, which by extension, is a major contributing factor to the prevalence of poverty. Therefore, adoption of conservation agricultural practices is regarded as a pathway to drive the achievement of food and nutrition security, as well as the needed optimal performance in the agri-food sector. Reportedly, scaling up of the limited adoption of these practices could be facilitated through kinship ties, peer influence, and social networks that govern mutual interactions among individuals; therefore, this motivated the study. Using cross-sectional data obtained from 350 sample units selected from South-Western Nigeria through a multistage sampling technique, this study applied descriptive statistical tools and cross-tabulation techniques to profile the sampled subjects while count outcome models were used to investigate the factors driving counts of conservative agriculture (CA) adoption. Similarly, a marginal treatment effects (MTEs) model (parametric approach) using local IV estimator was applied to examine the effects of CA adoption on the outcome (log of farmers’ farm income). Additionally, appropriate measures of fit tests statistics were used to test the reliabilities of the fitted models. Findings revealed that farmers’ years of farming experience (p < 0.1), frequency of extension visits (p < 0.05), and social capital viz-a-viz density of social group memberships (p < 0.05) significantly determined the count of CA practices adopted with varying degrees by smallholder farmers. Although, social capital expressed in terms of membership of occupational group and diversity of social group members also had a positive influence on the count of CA practices adopted but not significant owing largely to the “information gaps” about agricultural technologies in the study area. However, the statistical tests of the MTEs indicated that the treatment effects differed significantly across the covariates and it also varied significantly with unobserved heterogeneity. The policy relevant treatment effect estimates also revealed that different policy scenarios could increase or decrease CA adoption, depending on which individuals it induces to attract the expected spread and exposure.

show abstract

Understanding the role of social capital in adoption decisions: An application to irrigation technology

Cited by 166 publications

References 55 publications

Multi-Crop Production Decisions and Economic Irrigation Water Use Efficiency: The Effects of Water Costs, Pressure Irrigation Adoption, and Climatic Determinants

Multi-Crop Production Decisions and Economic Irrigation Water Use Efficiency: The Effects of Water Costs, Pressure Irrigation Adoption, and Climatic Determinants

What happens after technology adoption? Gendered aspects of small-scale irrigation technologies in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania

Social Capital and Adoption of Alternative Conservation Agricultural Practices in South-Western Nigeria

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About