Improved rice technology adoption: The role of spatially-dependent risk preference

Omotuyole Isiaka Ambali*, Francisco Jose Areal, Nikolaos Georgantzis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)
18 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This study analyses farmers’ adoption of improved rice technology, taking into account farmers’ risk preferences; the unobserved spatial heterogeneity associated with farmers’ risk preferences; farmers’ household and farm characteristics; farm locations, farmers’ access to information, and their perceptions on the rice improved varieties (i.e., high yield varieties, HYV). The study used data obtained from field experiments and a survey conducted in 2016 in Nigeria. An instrumental-variable probit model was estimated to account for potential endogenous farmers’ risk preference in the adoption decision model. Results show that risk averse (risk avoidant) farmers are less likely to adopt HYV, with the spatial lags of farmers’ risk attitudes found to be a good instrument for spatially unobserved variables (e.g., environmental and climatic factors). We conclude that studies supporting policy action aiming at the diffusion of improved rice varieties need to collect information, if possible, on farmers’ risk attitudes, local environmental and climatic conditions (e.g., climatic, topographic, soil quality, pest incidence) in order to ease the design and evaluation of policy actions on the adoption of improved agricultural technology.

Original languageEnglish
Article number691
Number of pages13
JournalAgriculture (Switzerland)
Volume11
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Jul 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Agricultural technology
  • Endogenous variable
  • Farmer’s technology adoption
  • Risk attitudes
  • Risk panel lottery
  • Spatial dependence
  • Unobserved heterogeneity

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