IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wodepe/v37y2025ics2452292924000845.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When does new information encourage adoption, and where can we observe it: A synthesis of 3ie’s thematic window on agricultural innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Bell, Andrew Reid
  • Engelbert, Mark

Abstract

We present a synthesis of 3ie’s Thematic Window on Agricultural Innovations − 13 evaluations of interventions to improve smallholder innovation and technology adoption, largely through improved access to and information about inputs, techniques, and markets. We ask 1) under what conditions does information about a technology improve understanding, adoption, and further downstream impacts; and 2) how do conditions of the evaluation (as a project) constrain our ability to observe impacts? Most of the 13 interventions involved information treatments (SMS text messaging, demonstration plots, farmer field days, and farmer field schools). While most information interventions lead to greater reported awareness of the focal technique or input, we observe fewer impacts further down the impact pathways – on adoption, yield gains, or improvements to wellbeing, with several possible explanations. First, more complicated techniques like integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) require deeper engagement, so that (for example) farmer field schools have greater effect than farmer field days. This highlights the tension between scalability and effective learning in improving extension. Second, many of the interventions were short (1–2 years), whereas diffusion of knowledge around the intervention (as well as benefits from adoption) can take longer to be realized. Third, all agricultural interventions are at the whims of a variable climate, where improved weather conditions from baseline to endline can mask possible benefits of an encouraged practice. We consider these three findings jointly to discuss how to better fold climate variation and information diffusion into consideration of validity and appropriate time scales for evaluation.

Suggested Citation

  • Bell, Andrew Reid & Engelbert, Mark, 2025. "When does new information encourage adoption, and where can we observe it: A synthesis of 3ie’s thematic window on agricultural innovation," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:wodepe:v:37:y:2025:i:c:s2452292924000845
    DOI: 10.1016/j.wdp.2024.100647
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452292924000845
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.wdp.2024.100647?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural adoption; Synthesis; Weather variation; ICTs; Integrated soil fertility management; Farmer field schools;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q16 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - R&D; Agricultural Technology; Biofuels; Agricultural Extension Services

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wodepe:v:37:y:2025:i:c:s2452292924000845. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/world-development-perspectives .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.