Knowledge and Adoption of Complex Agricultural Technologies Evidence from an Extension Experiment

In most of Sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural extension models have become more decentralized and participatory and thus, rely on effective farmer-to-farmer learning, while increasingly including non-traditional forms of education. At the same time, agricultural technologies become more complex and ar...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Horner, Denise
Other Authors: Bouguen, Adrien, Frolich, Markus, Wollni, Meike
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C The World Bank 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: World Bank E-Library Archive - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
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100 1 |a Horner, Denise 
245 0 0 |a Knowledge and Adoption of Complex Agricultural Technologies  |h Elektronische Ressource  |b Evidence from an Extension Experiment  |c Denise Horner 
260 |a Washington, D.C  |b The World Bank  |c 2021 
300 |a 82 pages 
653 |a Fertilizers 
653 |a Soil Fertility 
653 |a Randomized Control Trials 
653 |a Agricultural Sector Economics 
653 |a Climate Change and Agriculture 
653 |a Rural Development 
653 |a Sustainable Land Management 
653 |a Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems 
653 |a Agricultural Technology 
653 |a Technology Diffusion 
653 |a Agricultural Extension 
653 |a Agriculture 
700 1 |a Bouguen, Adrien 
700 1 |a Frolich, Markus 
700 1 |a Wollni, Meike 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b WOBA  |a World Bank E-Library Archive 
028 5 0 |a 10.1596/1813-9450-9840 
856 4 0 |u http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/book/10.1596/1813-9450-9840  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a In most of Sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural extension models have become more decentralized and participatory and thus, rely on effective farmer-to-farmer learning, while increasingly including non-traditional forms of education. At the same time, agricultural technologies become more complex and are now often promoted as integrated packages, likely to increase the complexity of the diffusion process. Based on a randomized controlled trial, this study assesses the effects of 'farmer-to-farmer' extension and a video intervention on adoption of a complex technology package among 2,382 smallholders in Ethiopia. Both extension-only and extension combined with video increase adoption and knowledge of the package, especially of its more complex components; although on average, there is no additional effect of the video intervention on adoption. Knowledge and the number of adopted practices also increase among farmers not actively participating in extension activities, suggesting information diffusion. For this group, the additional video intervention has a reinforcing effect, and particularly fosters adoption of the integrated package