Improving Technology Adoption in Agriculture through Extension Services : Evidence from Uruguay

This article evaluates whether cost-sharing public interventions are successful in promoting agricultural technology uptake by small and medium farmers, and whether these changes can affect yields. Our article contributes to the debate by providing empirical evidence, which is scarce in the literatu...

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Main Authors:	Maffioli, Alessandro, Ubfal, Diego, Vazquez-Bare, Gonzalo, Cerdan-Infantes, Pedro
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Taylor and Francis 2013
Subjects:	agricultural technology transfer extension services program evaluation fixed effects
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13392

id	okr-10986-13392
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-133922021-04-23T14:03:08Z Improving Technology Adoption in Agriculture through Extension Services : Evidence from Uruguay Maffioli, Alessandro Ubfal, Diego Vazquez-Bare, Gonzalo Cerdan-Infantes, Pedro agricultural technology transfer extension services program evaluation fixed effects This article evaluates whether cost-sharing public interventions are successful in promoting agricultural technology uptake by small and medium farmers, and whether these changes can affect yields. Our article contributes to the debate by providing empirical evidence, which is scarce in the literature, from a programme offering extension services to fruit producers in Uruguay. Using a unique panel data set, we estimate a fixed effects model for the impact of extension services on technology adoption and yields. We find evidence that the programme increased density of plantation. Once we address small sample issues, we also find some evidence of impact on the adoption of improved varieties. However, we find no evidence of impact on yields for the period under study. Although this lack of effects on yields could be due to the limited time frame of the evaluation and does not rule out effects on other measures of productivity, it may also indicate that the practices promoted by the programme are insufficient to induce a detectable impact on productivity and, consequently, sustainable benefits for the farmers. The study, therefore, confirms the need of including the design of impact evaluations in the policy design in order to properly consider the timing of all the potential effects and produce conclusive findings and precise recommendations. 2013-05-13T18:09:38Z 2013-05-13T18:09:38Z 2013-03-08 Journal Article Journal of Development Effectiveness 1943-9342 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13392 en_US Journal of Development Effectiveness;5(1) CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ World Bank Taylor and Francis Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Uruguay
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	agricultural technology transfer extension services program evaluation fixed effects
spellingShingle	agricultural technology transfer extension services program evaluation fixed effects Maffioli, Alessandro Ubfal, Diego Vazquez-Bare, Gonzalo Cerdan-Infantes, Pedro Improving Technology Adoption in Agriculture through Extension Services : Evidence from Uruguay
geographic_facet	Uruguay
relation	Journal of Development Effectiveness;5(1)
description	This article evaluates whether cost-sharing public interventions are successful in promoting agricultural technology uptake by small and medium farmers, and whether these changes can affect yields. Our article contributes to the debate by providing empirical evidence, which is scarce in the literature, from a programme offering extension services to fruit producers in Uruguay. Using a unique panel data set, we estimate a fixed effects model for the impact of extension services on technology adoption and yields. We find evidence that the programme increased density of plantation. Once we address small sample issues, we also find some evidence of impact on the adoption of improved varieties. However, we find no evidence of impact on yields for the period under study. Although this lack of effects on yields could be due to the limited time frame of the evaluation and does not rule out effects on other measures of productivity, it may also indicate that the practices promoted by the programme are insufficient to induce a detectable impact on productivity and, consequently, sustainable benefits for the farmers. The study, therefore, confirms the need of including the design of impact evaluations in the policy design in order to properly consider the timing of all the potential effects and produce conclusive findings and precise recommendations.
format	Journal Article
author	Maffioli, Alessandro Ubfal, Diego Vazquez-Bare, Gonzalo Cerdan-Infantes, Pedro
author_facet	Maffioli, Alessandro Ubfal, Diego Vazquez-Bare, Gonzalo Cerdan-Infantes, Pedro
author_sort	Maffioli, Alessandro
title	Improving Technology Adoption in Agriculture through Extension Services : Evidence from Uruguay
title_short	Improving Technology Adoption in Agriculture through Extension Services : Evidence from Uruguay
title_full	Improving Technology Adoption in Agriculture through Extension Services : Evidence from Uruguay
title_fullStr	Improving Technology Adoption in Agriculture through Extension Services : Evidence from Uruguay
title_full_unstemmed	Improving Technology Adoption in Agriculture through Extension Services : Evidence from Uruguay
title_sort	improving technology adoption in agriculture through extension services : evidence from uruguay
publisher	Taylor and Francis
publishDate	2013
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13392
_version_	1764423408717660160

Improving Technology Adoption in Agriculture through Extension Services : Evidence from Uruguay

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