Effects of farmers’ social networks on knowledge acquisition: lessons from agricultural training in rural Indonesia

Ayu Pratiwi () and Aya Suzuki
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Ayu Pratiwi: The University of Tokyo

Journal of Economic Structures, 2017, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-23

Abstract: Abstract Agricultural information is transferred through social interactions; therefore, ties to agricultural informants and network structures within farmers’ local neighborhoods determine their information-gathering abilities. This paper uses a spatial autoregressive model that takes account of spatial autocorrelation to examine such network connections, including friendship networks and advice networks, upon farmers’ knowledge-gathering abilities during formal agricultural training. We found that peer advice networks are important to support knowledge-gathering activities, while friendship networks are not. Further examination of network structures confirms that farmers who occupy a central position in their local neighborhood networks are found to perform better in learning outcomes to some extent, indicating that local network position is positively related to problem-solving ability in an unknown environment outside their locale.

Keywords: Spatial Autocorrelation; Centrality Measure; Betweenness Centrality; Personal Network; Friendship Network (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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DOI: 10.1186/s40008-017-0069-8

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