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Social capital, risk preference and adoption of improved farm land management practices in Ethiopia
Author(s) -
Wossen Tesfamicheal,
Berger Thomas,
Di Falco Salvatore
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.29
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1574-0862
pISSN - 0169-5150
DOI - 10.1111/agec.12142
Subject(s) - social capital , incentive , business , public economics , agriculture , preference , productivity , economics , land degradation , survey data collection , agricultural economics , natural resource economics , economic growth , microeconomics , geography , archaeology , social science , statistics , mathematics , sociology
Many developing countries grapple with high rates of farmland degradation and low agricultural productivity amidst increasing climate variability. Considerable efforts have been exerted to promote the diffusion of improved farmland management to address these challenges. Despite these efforts, adoption rates, especially of soil conservation and water harvesting technologies, are still low, which has been the subject of investigation in several studies in Ethiopia and elsewhere. Most studies on the adoption of these technologies, however, tend to focus on economic incentives only, paying little attention to the role of social capital. This article provides evidence of the effects of different dimensions of social capital on innovation adoption across households holding different levels of risk aversion. We address this issue by using cross section and panel data from Ethiopia. Results show that social capital plays a significant role in enhancing the adoption of improved farmland management practices. We also find evidence that the effect of social capital across households with heterogeneous risk taking behavior is different.