Chapter 4 The agricultural innovation process: Research and technology adoption in a changing agricultural sector

doi:10.1016/S1574-0072(01)10007-1

Handbook of Agricultural Economics

Volume 1, Part A, 2001, Pages 207-261

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1574-0072(01)10007-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

The chapter reviews the generation and adoption of new technologies in the agricultural sector. The first section describes models of induced innovation and experimentation, considers the political economy of public investments in agricultural research, and addresses institutions and public policies for managing innovation activity. The second section reviews the economics of technology adoption in agriculture. Threshold models, diffusion models, and the influence of risk, uncertainty, and dynamic factors on adoption are considered. The section also describes the influence of institutions and government interventions on adoption. The third section outlines future research and policy challenges.

References (82)

JustR.E. et al.
The effects of agricultural development policies on income distribution and technological change in agriculture
Journal of Development Economics
(1988)
KhannaM. et al.
Incentives, precision technology and environmental quality
Ecological Economics
(1997)
Agricultural Issues Center
Financing agriculture in California's new risk environment
AkerlofG.
The economics of caste and of the rate race and other woeful tales
Quarterly Journal of Economics
(1976)
AlstonJ.M. et al.
Science under Scarcity: Principles and Practice for Agricultural Research Evaluation and Priority Setting
(1995)
AlstonJ. et al.
The effects of imperfect competition on the size and distribution of research benefits
American Journal of Agricultural Economics
(1997)
AntleJ.M. et al.
Technological innovation, agricultural productivity, and environmental quality
BallV.E. et al.
Agricultural productivity revisited
American Journal of Agricultural Economics
(1997)
BerckP. et al.
The commons as a natural barrier to entry: Why there are so few fish farms
American Journal of Agricultural Economics
(1985)
BinswangerH.P.
A microeconomic approach to induced innovation
Economic Journal
(1974)

BinswangerH.P. et al.

Behavioral and material determinants of production relations in land abundant tropical agriculture

Journal of Economic Development and Cultural Change

(1987)

BoserupE.

Conditions of Agricultural Growth

(1965)

BrownL.R. et al.

Beyond Malthus, Nineteen dimensions of the population challenge

CarlettoC. et al.

Knowledge, toxicity, and external shocks: The determinants of adoption and abandonment of non-traditional export crops by smallholders in Guatemala

CaswellM.

Irrigation technology adoption decisions: Empirical evidence

CaswellM.F. et al.

The effects of well depth and land quality on the choice of irrigation technology

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

(1986)

CavalloD. et al.

Agriculture and economic growth in an open economy: The case of Argentina

ChavasJ.-P.

On sustainability and the economics of survival

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

(1993)

CochraneW.W.

The Development of American Agriculture: A Historical Analysis

(1979)

CoeymansJ.E. et al.

Sectoral growth in Chile: 1962–82

DavidP.A.

A contribution to the theory of diffusion

de GorterH. et al.

The dynamic effects of agricultural subsidies in the United States

Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics

(1993)

de GorterH. et al.

On the political economy of public good inputs in agriculture

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

(1990)

de JanvryA. et al.

The political economy of technological change: Mechanization of tomato harvesting in California

DiamondJ.

Guns, Germs and Steel

(1999)

DixitA. et al.

Investment Under Uncertainty

(1994)

EvensonR. et al.

A stochastic model of applied research

Journal of Political Economics

(1976)

FederG. et al.

Adoption of agricultural innovations in developing countries: A survey

Economic Development and Cultural Change

(1985)

FederG. et al.

Farm size and the adoption of green revolution technology

Economic Development and Cultural Change

(1981)

GardnerB.

The Economics of Agricultural Policies

(1988)

GoodhueR.

Agricultural complementarities and coordination: Modeling value differentiation and production contracting

GrilichesZ.

Hybrid corn: An exploration in the economics of technological change

Econometrica

(1957)

GrilichesZ.

Research costs and social returns: Hybrid corn and related innovations

Journal of Political Economy

(1958)

GuttmanJ.M.

Interest groups and the demand for agricultural research

Journal of Political Economy

(1978)

HamiltonS.F. et al.

The effect of farm supply shifts on concentration and market power in the food processing sector

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

(1997)

HamiltonS.F. et al.

Returns to public investments in agriculture with imperfect downstream competition

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

(1998)

HassetK.A. et al.

Energy Tax Credits and Residential Conservation Investment

(1992)

HayamiY. et al.

Agricultural Development: An International Perspective

(1985)

HeimanA. et al.

Modeling money-back guarantees as financial options

(1998)

HoffK. et al.

The Economics of Rural Organization: Theory, Practice and Policy

(1993)

HuffmanW.E.

Finance, organization and impacts of U.S. agricultural research: Future prospects

Cited by (486)

The dual role of insurance in input use: Mitigating risk versus curtailing incentives
2024, Journal of Development Economics
Insurance can encourage the use of risk-increasing inputs, but it can also decrease people’s incentives to exert effort when the latter is difficult to monitor. This effort reduction can be associated with a decrease in the use of effort-complementary inputs. I study a model of risk-sharing that allows for both effects of insurance on input use and use the latest ICRISAT panel to structurally estimate it. Median fertilizer use is almost three times higher under no sharing than under full insurance for reasonable levels of risk aversion. A subsidy that halves fertilizer prices increases farmers’ welfare by 37% in consumption-equivalent terms.
Aspirations, risk preferences, and investments in agricultural technologies
2023, Food Policy
We investigate the relationship between aspirations, risk preferences, and investment in agricultural technologies using data collected among cacao farmers in Ecuador. We first find that an inverted U-shaped relationship between the income aspirations gap and investments exists when considering relatively long-term investments (e.g., farm renovations) but not when considering relatively short-term investments (e.g., fertilizer use). Next, using lab-in-the-field experiments and survey instruments designed to elicit risk preferences, we show that the observed inverted U-shaped relationship is robust to the inclusion of risk preference parameters in our regression specification—a potentially important omitted variable in previous studies. Our empirical results are consistent with existing theory suggesting that aspirations that are ahead, but not too far ahead, of current levels provide the best incentives for investments in the future, and suggest the presence of psychological constraints to investments in agricultural technology.
Factors influencing smallholder Farmer's willingness to adopt sustainable land management practices to control invasive plants in northern Tanzania
2023, Environmental and Sustainability Indicators
Efforts to mitigate the effects of invasive plant species (IPS) have not produced the desired results due to poor adoption of land management practices developed by scientists and introduced to the community through a top-down approach. Little is known about adoption of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices that have been co-developed by a diverse group of local stakeholders through a participatory process. In this study, we assessed factors influencing the willingness of smallholder farmers to adopt SLM practices for the control of Lantana camara, Clidemia hirta, Pteridium acquilinum, and Prosopis juliflora in northern Tanzania. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information from 240 heads of households from eight villages affected by the four IPS. Binary logistic regression was applied to model the probability of factors that influence smallholder farmers' willingness to adopt the SLM practices. We found that farming experience, household income and conservation awareness were positively associated with the willingness for adoption of SLM practices. Surprisingly, the invasive species cover was negatively associated with the willingness for adoption of SLM practices for control of the IPS. We recommend that the extension service providers to continue raising awareness and education among farmers with low farming experience and income, and those with fields heavily infested with IPS.
The role of policy in supporting alternative marine farming methods: A case study of seafloor ranching in Australia
2023, Ocean and Coastal Management
Recent attention to the ecosystem service-generating potential of marine aquaculture (mariculture) indicates that there is substantial opportunity for marine farming to optimise practices that benefit both production and nature. One strategy for augmenting sustainability within the mariculture industry is to develop more diverse farming practices and culture species that can operate within existing ocean space constraints, contribute to ecological and conservation objectives, and assuage negative public sentiment towards mariculture. While this strategy has the potential to expand mariculture's sustainability, the implementation of these alternative culture approaches will likely depend on whether the management frameworks that regulate the industry have the authority and the capacity to enable farming innovations and encourage investment in diverse mariculture systems. Using Australia and seafloor ranching of molluscs as a case study, we explore the suitability of existing policy and legislation to support novel farming methods. We find that the policy frameworks differ across States in terms of their applicability (both implicit and explicit) to seafloor ranching activities, with substantial gaps regarding the siting and building of farming infrastructure. In the context of these results, we discuss potential strategies for leveraging existing policy and management frameworks to meet the needs of seafloor ranching and identify operational stages where new, targeted policy could be particularly impactful. Our case study offers practical insights to policymakers in Australia and other countries and regions seeking to support innovations in culture methods with a greater potential for sustainability.
AgriLOVE: Agriculture, land-use and technical change in an evolutionary, agent-based model
2023, Ecological Economics
This paper presents a dynamic agent-based model of land use and agricultural production under environmental boundaries, finite available resources and endogenous technical change. In particular, we model a spatially explicit smallholder farming system populated by boundedly-rational agents competing and innovating to fulfill an exogenous demand for food, while coping with a changing environment shaped by their production choices. Given the strong technological and environmental uncertainty, agents learn and adaptively employ heuristics which guide their decisions on engaging in innovation and imitation activities, hiring workers, acquiring new farms, deforesting virgin areas and abandoning unproductive lands. Such activities in turn impact farm productivity, food production, food prices and land use. We firstly show that the model can replicate key stylized facts of the agricultural sector. We then extensively explore its properties across several scenarios featuring different institutional and behavioral settings. Finally, we simulate the model across different applications considering deforestation and land abandonment; human-induced soil degradation; and climate impacts. AgriLOVE offers a flexible simulation environment to study the endogenous emergence of different agricultural production regimes from the interaction of spatially dispersed farms subject to resource constraints, spatial influence and climate change.
Adoption of computer-based technology (CBT) in agriculture in Kentucky, USA: Opportunities and barriers
2023, Technology in Society
We conducted a study to understand the factors affecting farmers' decisions to use computer-based technologies (CBT) so that feasible and farmer-friendly CBT can be developed as farm-decision support systems to improve farm productivity and sustainability. We analyzed data from 314 mail and in-person interview surveys from farmers in Kentucky, USA. We used a logistic regression model to identify sociodemographic factors influencing the adoption of CBT in farm management, production, and marketing by Kentucky farmers. Results suggest that the higher the farmer's education level, the more likely they will use CBT. Younger farmers are more likely to use CBT than older farmers, and the more acres a farmer owns, the more likely they are to use CBT. The results could help improve education and outreach strategies to reach out to farmers with innovative farm management and marketing strategies.

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

Chapter 4 The agricultural innovation process: Research and technology adoption in a changing agricultural sector

Abstract

Journal of Development Economics

Ecological Economics

Financing agriculture in California's new risk environment

The economics of caste and of the rate race and other woeful tales

Quarterly Journal of Economics

Science under Scarcity: Principles and Practice for Agricultural Research Evaluation and Priority Setting

The effects of imperfect competition on the size and distribution of research benefits

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

Technological innovation, agricultural productivity, and environmental quality

Agricultural productivity revisited

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

The commons as a natural barrier to entry: Why there are so few fish farms

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

A microeconomic approach to induced innovation

Economic Journal

Behavioral and material determinants of production relations in land abundant tropical agriculture

Journal of Economic Development and Cultural Change

Conditions of Agricultural Growth

Beyond Malthus, Nineteen dimensions of the population challenge

Knowledge, toxicity, and external shocks: The determinants of adoption and abandonment of non-traditional export crops by smallholders in Guatemala

Irrigation technology adoption decisions: Empirical evidence

The effects of well depth and land quality on the choice of irrigation technology

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

Agriculture and economic growth in an open economy: The case of Argentina

On sustainability and the economics of survival

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

The Development of American Agriculture: A Historical Analysis

Sectoral growth in Chile: 1962–82

A contribution to the theory of diffusion

The dynamic effects of agricultural subsidies in the United States

Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics

On the political economy of public good inputs in agriculture

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

The political economy of technological change: Mechanization of tomato harvesting in California

Guns, Germs and Steel

Investment Under Uncertainty

A stochastic model of applied research

Journal of Political Economics

Adoption of agricultural innovations in developing countries: A survey

Economic Development and Cultural Change

Farm size and the adoption of green revolution technology

Economic Development and Cultural Change

The Economics of Agricultural Policies

Agricultural complementarities and coordination: Modeling value differentiation and production contracting

Hybrid corn: An exploration in the economics of technological change

Econometrica

Research costs and social returns: Hybrid corn and related innovations

Journal of Political Economy

Interest groups and the demand for agricultural research

Journal of Political Economy

The effect of farm supply shifts on concentration and market power in the food processing sector

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

Returns to public investments in agriculture with imperfect downstream competition

American Journal of Agricultural Economics

Energy Tax Credits and Residential Conservation Investment

Agricultural Development: An International Perspective

Modeling money-back guarantees as financial options

The Economics of Rural Organization: Theory, Practice and Policy

Finance, organization and impacts of U.S. agricultural research: Future prospects