Technology adoption in small-scale agriculture

Abstract

This study sets out to explore one of the most important questions for alleviating poverty in sub-Saharan Africa namely: why are advancements in agricultural technology not taking root in this region? Using data from deep interviews of 42 smallscale farmers in Ghana and Cameroon, a conceptual analysis of drivers and factors of agricultural technology adoption in this region is made and represented as causal loop diagrams. Interviews also provide a basis for weighting factors that farmers consider before adopting a new technology. These weights are then used to run a systems dynamics model with a hypothetical population of 10.000 farmers to see the effects of different drivers of technology adoption on the adoption rate and number of adopters over a 25 year period. Results show that most farmers have a bethedging strategy as they try to minimize risks of production failures. While certain factors like scale of production, long-term considerations, the history of success of past technologies, and the endorsement of technologies by opinion leaders may be important, many other factors do influence decisions to adopt new technologies. This limits any silver bullet strategy towards solving the problem of limited diffusion of agricultural technologies in this region. Addressing such a problem therefore calls for a much more holistic approach.