Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP15584
Authors: Kyle Emerick; Alain de Janvry; Elisabeth Sadoulet; Manzoor Dar; Eleanor Wiseman
Abstract: Information frictions limit the adoption of new agricultural technologies in developing countries. Most public-sector interventions to eliminate these frictions target information directly at select farmers. We show that an information intervention targeted at private input suppliers increases farmer-level adoption by over 50 percent compared to this public-sector approach. These newly informed suppliers become more proactive in carrying the new variety, informing potential customers, and in increasing adoption by those most likely to benefit from the technology. They do so in a long-term perspective of reputation building and business development.
Keywords: technology adoption; agriculture; privatization; learning
JEL Codes: O30; O13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| economic incentives of dealers (L81) | adoption rates among farmers (Q16) |
| reputational concerns of dealers (L14) | adoption rates among farmers (Q16) |
| providing information and seeds to agrodealers (Q16) | adoption of swarnasub1 rice variety (Q16) |
| treatment (information provision to agrodealers) (Q16) | increase in farmer-level adoption (Q16) |
| treatment (information provision to agrodealers) (Q16) | average area cultivated with swarnasub1 increases (Q10) |
| treatment (information provision to agrodealers) (Q16) | dealers in treatment blocks have swarnasub1 in stock (L81) |