Adoption and Abandonment of Partial Conservation Technologies in Developing Economies: The Case of South Asia

D’Souza, Alwin and Ashok K. Mishra

Land Use Policy, 2018, vol. 70, issue C, 212-223

Abstract: Conservation agriculture (CA), a resource saving production system, could increase marginal farmers’ incomes and sustainable agricultural systems, but adoption of CA includes the adoption of multiple technologies in the form of a package. Consequently, a complete adoption of a package of full CA technologies could be costly in the developing countries. Alternatively, encouraging the adoption of a complete package of CA technologies, in some cases, partial adoption of selected CA technologies (or PCA) may be suitable for the developing countries. Using farm-level data this study investigates the factors affecting the adoption and abandonment of PCA in the Indo-Gangetic plains of India. Particular attention is given to the role of spouses and social networks in the adoption and abandonment decisions of PCA. Findings show that social networks have a significantly positive effect on the adoption, but a significantly negative effect on the abandonment of PCA. Additionally, spouse’s involvement in agricultural activities has a significant effect on the adoption of PCA. Finally, we find that farmers who saw PCA in action and not just heard from their neighbors, were more likely to adopt and less likely to abandon PCA. Therefore, promotional events through audio and visual media may not be as effective in the adoption of PCA.

Keywords: Partial conservation agriculture; Indo-Gangetic plain; Adoption; Abandonment; Social networks; Spouses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 Q2 Q33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837717308505
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:70:y:2018:i:c:p:212-223

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.10.015

Access Statistics for this article

Land Use Policy is currently edited by Jaap Zevenbergen

More articles in Land Use Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joice Jiang ().