Measuring agricultural knowledge and adoption

Florence Kondylis, Valerie Mueller and Siyao Jessica Zhu

No 7058, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Understanding the trade-offs in improving the precision of agricultural measures through survey design is crucial. Yet, standard indicators used to determine program effectiveness may be flawed and at a differential rate for men and women. The authors use a household survey from Mozambique to estimate the measurement error from male and female self-reports of their adoption and knowledge of three practices: intercropping, mulching, and strip tillage. Despite clear differences in human and physical capital, there are no obvious differences in the knowledge, adoption, and error in self-reporting between men and women. Having received training unanimously lowers knowledge misreports and increases adoption misreports. Other determinants of reporting error differ by gender. Misreporting is positively associated with a greater number of plots for men. Recall decay on measures of knowledge appears prominent among men but not women. Findings from regression and cost-effectiveness analyses always favor the collection of objective measures of knowledge. Given the lowest rate of accuracy for adoption was around 80 percent, costlier objective adoption measures are recommended for a subsample in regions with heterogeneous farm sizes.

Keywords: Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems; Primary Education; Population Policies; Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems; Crops and Crop Management Systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-10-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dem, nep-dev and nep-knm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: Measuring agricultural knowledge and adoption (2015)
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