Rural roads, agricultural extension, and productivity

Low agricultural productivity is a persistent challenge for developing economies. Expansions of rural roads and agricultural extension, separately, have been proposed as solutions with mixed effectiveness. In this paper, I show that it is critical to consider roads and extension together due to their strong complementarities. I study the concurrent but independent expansions of rural roads and extension in Ethiopia, and find that, while ineffective in isolation, access to both a road and extension increases productivity by 6%. The key mechanisms include increased take up of advice, adoption of modern inputs, and advantageous shifts in crop choice and labor allocation.