Learning for Adopting: Technology Adoption in Developing Country Agriculture

Productivity growth in agriculture is expected to be the main source of successful structural transformation and industrialization for pre-industrial developing countries with an un-captured potential in agriculture. Indeed, history tells us that agricultural revolutions have preceded industrial revolutions in most countries with rural populations. Recent experiences with industrialization in countries such as China, India, and Brazil support this proposition. Productivity growth in agriculture requires the availability of technological innovations for agriculture and adoption of these innovations by the farm community. In recent years, emphasis has been given to the lag between the presumed availability of promising innovations and their adoption. Many factors can be associated with lack of adoption, such as credit constraints, lack of insurance coverage, high transaction costs on markets, or behavioral inadequacies. In addition, as information about new technologies is a necessary, if not sufficient, condition for adoption, a good understanding of potential information failures that limit farmers adoption of available technologies is considered key. This puts the focus on the performance of extension services and the transfer of information through social networks, agro-dealers, or farmer’s commercial partners upstream in the value chain.Motivated by this observation FERDI (Fondation pour les Études et Recherches sur le Développement International) and SPIA (Standing Panel on Impact Assessment of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) organized a workshop to explore the current knowledge on how farmers learn and decide on adoption. We present here a summary of the main conclusions reached in the workshop and a brief outline of the presentations made. The presentations are summarized in the eleven policy briefs that follow this introduction.