Seed Market Privatisation and Farmers’ Access to Crop Technologies: The Case of Hybrid Pearl Millet Adoption in India

In India, pearl millet is a typical subsistence crop. Nonetheless, use of hybrid seeds is widespread. The first pearl millet hybrids were introduced in 1965 by the public sector. Yet, starting in the late 1980s, market liberalisation led to an increasing role of private companies in seed development and distribution. Although several studies showed that proprietary pearl millet hybrids are more productive than public hybrids and open‐pollinated varieties, the impacts of privatisation on farmers’ technology access and overall innovation rates are not yet well understood. This paper analyses the dynamics of adoption using duration models and farm survey data collected in the state of Maharashtra. The results show that education, short distances to main information sources and good market infrastructure speeded up the adoption of pearl millet hybrids. Likewise, the increasing role of private seed companies had a positive and accelerating effect on technology diffusion in the small farm sector.     

INTER-REGIONAL VARIATION IN THE SPEED OF ADOPTION OF MODERN CEREAL CULTIVARS IN INDIA

Speed of adoption of modern cereal cultivars in India is measured and its inter-regional variation is investigated. Adoption speed varies widely across regions and between cereals. While profitability and production risk have been important determinants of adoption speed of high-yielding wheat and rice varieties, such factors fail to explain adequately the uptake of modern cultivars of sorghum, pearl millet and maize. A comparison with the results of other studies confirms the responsiveness of Indian farmers to economic opportunities.     

The impacts of information on returns from farming: evidence from a nationally representative farm survey in India

Using a nationally representative sample of farm households from India, this paper examines the impact of use of information on net farm incomes. Employing methodologies that mitigate potential biases in the estimation of the impact, the empirical results show that farmers who use information realize over 12% higher net returns per hectare. The paper also establishes a pecking order in access to information. Small farmers and those at the bottom of social hierarchy (based on caste) have access to fewer information sources, and they depend more on informal social networks and input dealers for their information needs. The larger farmers and those from upper caste rely relatively more on sources such as radio, television and newspaper.     

When my neighbors matter: Spillover effects in the adoption of large-scale pesticide-free wheat production

We investigate the spillover effects in farmers’ adoption decisions of a novel pesticide-free wheat production system. To this end, we exploit the variability and asymmetry in the social ties among neighboring farmers. We find evidence of spillover effects in farmers’ adoption decisions as well as in farm and farmer characteristics. Our results further highlight the importance of accounting for potentially heterogeneous social ties in farmer networks beyond pure measures of spatial proximity: spillover effects are only robust once we account for the strength of social ties through farmers’ stated tendency to consult peers on agricultural decisions. Our findings highlight the relevance of peer influence in the diffusion of sustainable agriculture practices even in contexts of well-functioned institutions and high interest in environmental protection such as European agriculture. We discuss implications for the design of policies and programs for sustainable agriculture, which are currently in the center of attention in agricultural policymaking.     

Early adoption,experience, and farm performance of GM corn seeds

The current article explores the characteristics that distinguish early from late adopters of GM corn and measures the productivity impacts of early adoption, for a sample of farmers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The results of the adoption analysis confirm that size, education as well as specialization are positively correlated with early adoption. In addition, these results also show that farms that are mostly worked by family labor but hire some off‐farm labor are more likely to adopt GM seeds earlier in the diffusion process. The productivity analysis demonstrates the superiority of stacked varieties. At the same time, we find no evidence of a direct impact of experience on yields. Given the previously documented impact of early adoption on the use of stacked varieties, we conclude that experience plays a role through the adoption of these new technologies but does not play a role in allowing the producer to use the technology more efficiently, once it has been adopted.     

Determinants of millet diversity at the household-farm and village-community levels in the drylands of India: the role of local seed systems

This research characterizes the biological diversity of millet crops in the semiarid regions of India at the household and village‐community ( panchayat) scales of analysis, placing that evidence in the context of local seed systems. A set of seed system parameters that span formal and informal exchange and can be measured empirically are proposed. The analysis is based on data collected through sample surveys of farmers and traders in selected sites of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, combined with cultivar taxonomies developed with geneticists and applied to seed samples. Findings demonstrate that millet crop diversity levels at both scales of analysis are significantly influenced by seed system parameters, factors which related studies have omitted. In particular, the presence of active local (formal and informal) seed markets enhances millet richness among and within farming communities. Crop improvement strategies oriented toward local seed markets could provide important benefits and incentives to farm households living in these marginal environments. There is a need, however, for an enhanced theoretical understanding of local seed markets in analyzing crop variety choices and the diversity of materials grown in less favored environments.     

The role of social networks in the adoption of competing new technologies in Ghana

We use a detailed dataset to examine the impact of social networks, conditional on contextual and individual confounders, on farmers' adoption of competing improved soybean varieties in Ghana. Based on the contagion conceptual framework, we employ a spatial autoregressive multinomial probit model to examine how neighbours' varietal and cross-varietal adoption of improved varieties affect a farmer's adoption decision in the social network. Our results show that adoption decisions in a network tend to converge on one variety, such that beyond a threshold of adopting neighbours of that improved variety, the cross-varietal effects tend to lose significance in the network. If the shares of adopting neighbours of the improved varieties are equal, we find evidence that farmers are not more likely to adopt either improved variety compared to farmers with no neighbours who have adopted the improved varieties. The findings demonstrate the significance of neighbourhood effects in the adoption of competing technologies.     

When knowledgeable neighbors also share seedlings: diffusion of banana cultivation in Tanzania

Networks have been found to increase adoption of technology by providing information about the new technology (e.g., Conley and Udry, 2010). However, little is known about provision of necessary inputs for adoption through networks. Using data from an intervention in Tanzania, I discuss how a farmer's network can also affect the adoption of improved banana cultivation by providing seedlings. A solidarity chain principle obliged project farmers to pass on improved seedlings to other farmers free of charge. I provide a theoretical framework to guide intuition for the empirical results and suggest an empirical distinction between information and input provision through networks. Empirically, I find support for network effects through provision of both information and inputs, jointly boosting the network effect on adoption: a farmer is 39 percentage points more likely to adopt banana cultivation if there is at least one banana grower in the farmer's network compared to none. In this setting, it is not possible to fully disentangle the input and information channel. While the findings suggest that a solidarity chain principle could be an interesting avenue to boost local diffusion of new technologies, more research is needed to unpack the causal impact and the interplay with existing input markets.     

Stages and determinants of fertilizer use in semiarid African agriculture: the Niger experience

Fertilization is a stepwise decision in Niger. Survey data from a representative sample of 100 households were utilized with individual and joint estimation to evaluate the determinants of fertilizer use at its three different stages: manure alone and two different types of inorganic fertilizer application. The fertilizer price relative to the millet price was always a highly significant determinant of fertilizer adoption. Farmers' experience in seeing the results of fertilization in the field was a principal factor influencing the use of manure and of the micro‐fertilization. Other studies in semiarid regions have emphasized risk, liquidity, or fertilizer responsiveness under harsh conditions but the shift to the micro doses of inorganic fertilizer was statistically associated here with the demonstration trials and the price ratios (fertilizer/millet). A variable reflecting the millet price recovery approximately 6 months after harvest was the most important factor in the decision to raise further inorganic fertilizer use with side dressing. Policy implications were focused on the importance of demonstration trials and improvements in the economic conditions (millet–fertilizer price ratios).     

Interaction between crop insurance and technology adoption decisions: The case of wheat farmers in Chile

This paper examines relationships between crop insurance and input technology decisions among Chilean wheat farmers. Using nationwide farm‐level data, a bivariate probit model is estimated. We investigate the extent to which the adoption of production input technologies is associated with farmers’ participation in the insurance program. We find that relationships between insurance and technology decisions are significant only for family farmers. In particular, there is a negative relationship between participation in the insurance program and the adoption of modern irrigation. Interpretations based on the role of input technologies on insurance adoption and adverse selection behaviours are discussed.     

Land titling policy and soil conservation in the northern uplands of Vietnam

In Vietnam, a quasi-private property regime has been established in 1993 with the issuance of exchangeable and mortgageable long-term land use right certificates. Using primary qualitative and quantitative data collected in a mountainous district of Northern Vietnam, this paper investigates the role of the land policy in the adoption of soil conservation technologies by farmers. This issue is of crucial importance in the region where population growth and growing market demands have induced farmers to intensify agricultural production. While poverty has been reduced, environmental problems such as soil erosion, landslides, and declining soil fertility have become more severe over the past years. Our findings suggest that despite farmers’ awareness of erosion, soil conservation technologies are perceived as being economically unattractive; therefore, most upland farmers continue to practice the prevailing erosion-prone cultivation system. Focusing on agroforestry as one major soil conservation option, we estimate household and plot-level econometric models to empirically assess the determinants of adoption. We find that the possession of a formal land title positively influences adoption, but that the threat of land reallocations in villages discourages adoption by creating uncertainty and tenure insecurity. The analyses reveal that these two effects interact with each other but are of small magnitude. We conclude that the issuance of land titles is a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite to encouraging the adoption of soil conservation practices. However, current practices remain economically unattractive to farmers. This deficiency needs to be addressed by interdisciplinary research and complemented by strong efforts by local authorities to promote sustainable land use.     

Tradeoffs and complementarities in the adoption of improved seeds,fertilizer, and natural resource management technologies in Kenya

There is widespread consensus that agricultural technology has an important role to play for poverty reduction and sustainable development. There is no consensus, however, about the types of technologies that are best suited for smallholder farmers in Africa. While some consider natural resource management (NRM) technologies as most appropriate, others propagate input intensification with a stronger role of the private sector. In the public debate, these two strategies are often perceived as incompatible. Environmental non‐governmental organizations in particular consider low‐external input strategies as the only sustainable form of agriculture, a view that has considerable influence on policymakers and the international donor community. Most existing research studies on smallholder innovation focus on the adoption of individual technologies, so that comparisons between different types of technologies in the same context are not easily possible. We use representative data from maize‐producing households in Kenya and a multivariate probit model to analyze the adoption of different types of technologies simultaneously. Results indicate that NRM technologies and strategies that build on external inputs are not incompatible. Interesting complementarities exist, which are not yet sufficiently exploited because many organizations promote either one type of technology or the other, but rarely a combination of both.     

Greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation potential from fertilizer manufacture and application in India

Crop management research is increasingly involving farmers in evaluating new technologies, identifying adoption constraints and opportunities for improving farm performance to produce more sustainable impact. ICRISAT and its partners worked with farmers in Malawi and Zimbabwe during the 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 seasons to evaluate a range of ‘best bet’ soil fertility and water management technologies and evaluate the impact of farmer participatory research. Although there was some variation in methods implemented at different sites, the study found that there is a basis for a comparison of methods. Community entry and participatory approaches that engage farmers in decision making throughout the research-development-diffusion-innovation process have higher setup costs compared to traditional ‘top-down’ approaches. But they improve efficiency, both in technology development and in building farmers' capacity for experimentation and collective learning. This results in the development of more relevant technologies, joint learning among farmers, researchers and extensionists and better impact. To make farmer participatory research projects more sustainable and introduce them on a wide scale, the study recommends that public and NGO investments be targeted to building district and village-level innovation clusters.     

Duration Analysis of Technological Adoption in Ethiopian Agriculture

Duration analysis has been used to examine the impact of time‐varying and time‐invariant variables on the speed of adoption of fertiliser and herbicide by smallholder farmers in East and West Shewa in the central highlands of Ethiopia in the 25 years preceding 1996. The estimated models suggest that economic incentives were the most important determinants of the time farmers waited before adopting new technologies; traction power in the form of oxen and infrastructural factors (in particular proximity to markets) also appear to have been important influences, but less so than prices. Other agricultural inputs (area of farmland, labour, credit), extension services and farmers' personal characteristics (education, gender, age) appear to have had little, if any, effect on adoption behaviour. There is also evidence that the speed of adoption of herbicide, on both tef and wheat, was slower than that of fertiliser.     

Factors influencing hybrid rice adoption: a Bangladesh case

As rice constitutes the major share in cereal consumption in South and East Asian countries that ranges from as low as 40 per cent in India to 97 per cent in Myanmar, to ensure food security, governments in these countries are encouraging farmers to adopt hybrid rice. This is mainly because hybrid rice provides a yield gain of 15–20 per cent over conventionally bred varieties in general. Yet, despite strenuous government efforts, farmers’ adoption rates have remained low in India, Bangladesh and Vietnam compared with China. Although studies often claim that higher seed costs and inferior grain quality are the major factors limiting hybrid rice adoption, very few studies examine the importance of socio‐economic factors and infrastructure in the adoption of hybrid rice. Using Bangladesh as a case, a comparative analysis has been made on the adoption of hybrid and modern varieties relative to traditional rice varieties and land allocation to these varieties. Econometric results indicate that general land characteristics, loan facilities and general infrastructure, such as roads, irrigation facilities and the availability of government‐approved seed dealers, significantly influence the adoption of hybrid and modern rice varieties and land allocation to these varieties compared with traditional varieties.     

Innovation and networks in New Zealand farming

The New Zealand government seeks to dramatically increase the value of agricultural exports while concurrently protecting the natural environment. Thus, farmers are expected to adopt pro‐environmental management practices and novel farm technologies. We show that farmers are more likely to adopt new practices and technologies after seeing them demonstrated, but earlier evidence indicates that demonstration is most effectively undertaken within farmer networks. We use multivariate regression to identify the traits of livestock farmers who are innovative by focusing on adoption of pro‐environmental management practices (managing nutrients, soils and pugging) and novel farm technologies (e.g., windmills, computer‐based management systems, automatic sensors and specialised grasses), considering both numbers adopted and timing. We find that dairy farmers are more innovative than other livestock farmers and that higher education levels and stronger environmental norms within the family are strongly associated with innovativeness. In addition, we find that innovators and early adopters have larger networks than other farmers. Moreover, the composition of these networks is much more varied than the networks of less innovative farmers. These findings imply that innovative farmers in New Zealand may also act as connectors for the diffusion of new ideas in farming.     

Market imperfections,access to information and technology adoption in Uganda: challenges of overcoming multiple constraints

Limited empirical evidence exists on how multiple binding constraints influence the adoption of improved technologies by smallholder farmers. This article uses the case of groundnut variety adoption in Uganda to investigate the role of information, seed supply, and credit constraints in conditioning technology uptake. New data from a household survey in seven groundnut growing districts (n = 945) indicate that 8% of farmers lack information on new varieties, while 18% and 6% of farmers, respectively, cannot adopt mainly due to seed supply and capital constraints. A tobit‐type specification that considers all nonadopters as being uninterested in the technology (i.e., corner solutions) would lead to inconsistent parameter estimates and incorrect conclusions in this context. We therefore estimate a modified multi‐hurdle specification of demand for new varieties, taking into account how information, seed supply, and capital constraints jointly determine adoption probability and intensity. The study reveals new empirical insights on why agricultural technology adoption in Africa has lagged behind: slow uptake is not mainly due to a lack of economic incentives, but rather a reflection of information, seed supply, and credit constraints that prevent farmers from translating their desired demand into adoption of modern varieties. Policy implications are discussed.     

The impact of soil conservation and output diversification on farm income in Central American hillside farming

This article analyzes the determinants of farm income among hillside farmers participating in natural resource management projects in El Salvador and Honduras. The farm income function was evaluated using a system of equations in which income is determined simultaneously by the farmer's decision to adopt soil conservation technologies and by the level of diversification (number of agricultural activities) on the farm. The database used comes from surveys administered to 678 beneficiaries of these projects during 2002. The econometric results suggest that all the variables related directly to land use (i.e., output diversification, soil conservation practices and structures, and the adoption of forestry systems) have a positive and statistically significant association with farm income. Also, farmers who own land enjoy higher farm incomes than those who do not. The results indicate that when investing in natural resource management projects, governments and multilateral development agencies should pay close attention to output diversification, land tenure, and human capital formation as effective instruments in increasing farm income.     

Factors explaining the diffusion of hybrid maize in Latin America and the Caribbean region

If future demand for maize in Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC) is to be met from local sources, domestic production must continue to increase. Because further expansion in the area planted to maize is precluded by the limited availability of arable land, future increases in production will have to rely heavily on the spread of productivity‐enhancing hybrid technology. Until now, the diffusion of hybrid maize in LAC has been quite variable. Using data from 18 countries, we investigate factors affecting the hybrid maize diffusion rate. Our findings validate conventional profitability‐based explanations of producer adoption behavior, but they also confirm the importance of supply‐side factors, thereby providing empirical support for the life cycle theory of seed industry development. We conclude that if policy makers in LAC are to accelerate the diffusion of hybrid maize, they will have to ensure an environment in which it is not only profitable for producers to adopt improved germplasm, but also profitable for the seed industry to produce and sell high‐quality seed.