Seeing is believing? Evidence from an extension network experiment

Extension is designed to enable lab-to-farm technology diffusion. Decentralized models assume that information flows from researchers to extension workers, and from extension agents to contact farmers (CFs). CFs should then train other farmers in their communities. Such a modality may fail to addres...

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Autores principales: Kondylis, Florence, Mueller, Valerie, Zhu, Siyao Jessica
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148261
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author Kondylis, Florence
Mueller, Valerie
Zhu, Siyao Jessica
author_browse Kondylis, Florence
Mueller, Valerie
Zhu, Siyao Jessica
author_facet Kondylis, Florence
Mueller, Valerie
Zhu, Siyao Jessica
author_sort Kondylis, Florence
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Extension is designed to enable lab-to-farm technology diffusion. Decentralized models assume that information flows from researchers to extension workers, and from extension agents to contact farmers (CFs). CFs should then train other farmers in their communities. Such a modality may fail to address informational inefficiencies and accountability issues. We run a field experiment to measure the impact of augmenting the CF model with a direct CF training on the diffusion of a new technology. All villages have CFs and access the same extension network. In treatment villages, CFs additionally receive a three-day, central training on the new technology. We track information transmission through two nodes of the extension network: from extension agents to CFs, and from CFs to other farmers. Directly training CFs leads to a large, statistically significant increase in adoption among CFs. However, higher levels of CF adoption have limited impact on the behavior of other farmers.
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spelling CGSpace1482612025-11-12T04:47:57Z Seeing is believing? Evidence from an extension network experiment Kondylis, Florence Mueller, Valerie Zhu, Siyao Jessica technology transfer extension activities agriculture contract farming Extension is designed to enable lab-to-farm technology diffusion. Decentralized models assume that information flows from researchers to extension workers, and from extension agents to contact farmers (CFs). CFs should then train other farmers in their communities. Such a modality may fail to address informational inefficiencies and accountability issues. We run a field experiment to measure the impact of augmenting the CF model with a direct CF training on the diffusion of a new technology. All villages have CFs and access the same extension network. In treatment villages, CFs additionally receive a three-day, central training on the new technology. We track information transmission through two nodes of the extension network: from extension agents to CFs, and from CFs to other farmers. Directly training CFs leads to a large, statistically significant increase in adoption among CFs. However, higher levels of CF adoption have limited impact on the behavior of other farmers. 2017-03 2024-06-21T09:24:12Z 2024-06-21T09:24:12Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148261 en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150151 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152076 Open Access application/pdf Elsevier Kondylis, Florence; Mueller, Valerie; and Zhu, Siyao Jessica. 2017. Seeing is believing? Evidence from an extension network experiment. Journal of Development Economics 125(March 2017): 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.10.004
spellingShingle technology transfer
extension activities
agriculture
contract farming
Kondylis, Florence
Mueller, Valerie
Zhu, Siyao Jessica
Seeing is believing? Evidence from an extension network experiment
title Seeing is believing? Evidence from an extension network experiment
title_full Seeing is believing? Evidence from an extension network experiment
title_fullStr Seeing is believing? Evidence from an extension network experiment
title_full_unstemmed Seeing is believing? Evidence from an extension network experiment
title_short Seeing is believing? Evidence from an extension network experiment
title_sort seeing is believing evidence from an extension network experiment
topic technology transfer
extension activities
agriculture
contract farming
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148261
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