Access and Learning Through Information Networks in Agricultural Technology Diffusion: Results from a Partial Population Experiment in Uganda

Posted: 21 May 2011

See all articles by Scott Craig McNiven

Scott Craig McNiven

Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Davis

Daniel O. Gilligan

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract

We use data from a partial population experiment to examine how Ugandan farmers access and learn about a new agricultural technology from farmers in their information networks. The experiment introduced the vitamin A-rich orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) to participating farmer groups 48 communities in Uganda. In each community, members of exactly one farmer group were offered propagable OFSP vines and trainings on OFSP cultivation. We study OFSP diffusion to nearby farmers who are not members of the participating farmer group (whom we call nonmembers). We use experimentally-induced variation in the number and density of nonmember’s treated information neighbors, conditional on measures of network size, to identify the effects of increased information and resources within a network on OFSP diffusion. Nonmembers with at least one treated information neighbor are more likely to adopt OFSP. In contrast, among nonmembers who adopted OFSP in the intervention’s first season, those with higher treated information network densities are less likely to have disadopted by the fourth season. We interpret the results as evidence that nonmembers, at the start of the first season, search their information networks for a neighbor that can provide to access OFSP vines. Those that gained access act as Bayesian learners, gathering from their network dispersed information about OFSP management or imitable signals that discourage disadoption.

Suggested Citation

McNiven, Scott Craig and Gilligan, Daniel O., Access and Learning Through Information Networks in Agricultural Technology Diffusion: Results from a Partial Population Experiment in Uganda. Fifth Annual PopPov Conference on Population, Reproductive Health, and Economic Development, 2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1845894

Scott Craig McNiven (Contact Author)

Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Davis ( email )

One Shields Avenue
SS&H Building
Davis, CA 95616
United States

Daniel O. Gilligan

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) ( email )

2033 K St., NW
Washington, DC 20006-1002
United States
202-862-8146 (Phone)
202-467-4439 (Fax)

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