Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia
Adoption of quality-enhancing technologies is often driven largely by farmers’ expected returns from these technologies. Without proper grades, standards, and certification systems, however, farmers may remain uncertain about the actual financial return associated with their quality-enhancing invest...
| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | Artículo preliminar |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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International Food Policy Research Institute
2017
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147618 |
| _version_ | 1855534410307207168 |
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| author | Abate, Gashaw T. Bernard, Tanguy |
| author_browse | Abate, Gashaw T. Bernard, Tanguy |
| author_facet | Abate, Gashaw T. Bernard, Tanguy |
| author_sort | Abate, Gashaw T. |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Adoption of quality-enhancing technologies is often driven largely by farmers’ expected returns from these technologies. Without proper grades, standards, and certification systems, however, farmers may remain uncertain about the actual financial return associated with their quality-enhancing investments. This report summarizes the outcomes of a short video-based randomized training intervention on wheat quality measurement and collective marketing among 15,000 wheat farmers in Ethiopia. Our results suggest that the intervention led to significant changes in farmers’ commercialization behaviors—namely, it prompted farmers to adopt behaviors geared toward assessing their wheat’s quality using easily implementable test-weight measures, assessing the accuracy of the equipment used by buyers in their kebeles (scales, in particular), and contacting more than one buyer before concluding a sale. The training also led to improvements in share of output sold, price received, and collective marketing, albeit with important limitations. First, farmers who measured their wheat quality received a higher price, but only if their wheat was of higher quality. Second, farmers who found that their wheat was of higher quality were more reluctant to aggregate their wheat (that is, sell their products through local cooperatives) than those who found that their wheat was of lower quality. Lastly, the training intervention led to better use of fertilizer in the following season. Our discovery that a short training intervention can significantly change farmers’ marketing and production behavior should encourage the development of further interventions aimed at enhancing farmers’ adoption of improved technologies and commercialization. |
| format | Artículo preliminar |
| id | CGSpace147618 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateRange | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| publisher | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| publisherStr | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1476182025-11-06T07:10:10Z Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia Abate, Gashaw T. Bernard, Tanguy impact technology quality randomized controlled trial quality assurance wheat commercialization Adoption of quality-enhancing technologies is often driven largely by farmers’ expected returns from these technologies. Without proper grades, standards, and certification systems, however, farmers may remain uncertain about the actual financial return associated with their quality-enhancing investments. This report summarizes the outcomes of a short video-based randomized training intervention on wheat quality measurement and collective marketing among 15,000 wheat farmers in Ethiopia. Our results suggest that the intervention led to significant changes in farmers’ commercialization behaviors—namely, it prompted farmers to adopt behaviors geared toward assessing their wheat’s quality using easily implementable test-weight measures, assessing the accuracy of the equipment used by buyers in their kebeles (scales, in particular), and contacting more than one buyer before concluding a sale. The training also led to improvements in share of output sold, price received, and collective marketing, albeit with important limitations. First, farmers who measured their wheat quality received a higher price, but only if their wheat was of higher quality. Second, farmers who found that their wheat was of higher quality were more reluctant to aggregate their wheat (that is, sell their products through local cooperatives) than those who found that their wheat was of lower quality. Lastly, the training intervention led to better use of fertilizer in the following season. Our discovery that a short training intervention can significantly change farmers’ marketing and production behavior should encourage the development of further interventions aimed at enhancing farmers’ adoption of improved technologies and commercialization. 2017 2024-06-21T09:23:06Z 2024-06-21T09:23:06Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147618 en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150380 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/160217 https://doi.org/10.1093/erae/jbab018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2021.102173 Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Abate, Gashaw T. and Bernard, Tanguy. 2017. Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1624. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147618 |
| spellingShingle | impact technology quality randomized controlled trial quality assurance wheat commercialization Abate, Gashaw T. Bernard, Tanguy Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia |
| title | Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia |
| title_full | Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia |
| title_fullStr | Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia |
| title_short | Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia |
| title_sort | farmers quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior a field experiment in ethiopia |
| topic | impact technology quality randomized controlled trial quality assurance wheat commercialization |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147618 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT abategashawt farmersqualityassessmentoftheircropsanditsimpactoncommercializationbehaviorafieldexperimentinethiopia AT bernardtanguy farmersqualityassessmentoftheircropsanditsimpactoncommercializationbehaviorafieldexperimentinethiopia |