Tradeoffs and Complementarities in the Adoption of Improved Seeds, Fertilizer, and Natural Resource Management Technologies in Kenya

Priscilla Wainaina, Songporne Tongruksawattana and Matin Qaim

No 189914, GlobalFood Discussion Papers from Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development

Abstract: There is widespread consensus that agricultural technology has an important role to play for poverty reduction and sustainable development. There is less consensus, however, about the types of technologies that are best suited for smallholder farmers in Africa. While some consider natural resource management (NRM) technologies as most appropriate, others propagate input intensification with a stronger role of the private sector. In the public debate, the two strategies are often perceived as incompatible. Most existing adoption studies focus on individual technologies, so that comparisons across technologies in the same context are not easily possible. We use representative data from maize-producing households in Kenya and a multivariate probit model to analyze the adoption of different types of technologies simultaneously. Results indicate that NRM technologies and strategies that build on external inputs are not incompatible. Interesting complementarities exist, which are not yet sufficiently exploited, because many organizations promote either one type of technology or the other, but rarely a combination of both.

Keywords: Community/Rural/Urban Development; Environmental Economics and Policy; International Development; Production Economics; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34
Date: 2014-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr, nep-dev and nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:gagfdp:189914

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.189914

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