EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

How Do Farmers Learn from Extension Services? Evidence from Malawi

Annemie Maertens, Hope Michelson and Vesall Nourani

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2021, vol. 103, issue 2, 569-595

Abstract: Though extension services have long since proved their value to agricultural production and farmer prosperity, their record in sub‐Saharan Africa has been mixed. To study the impact of such programs on farmers' learning about agricultural technologies, we implemented a quasi‐randomized controlled trial and collected detailed panel data among Malawian farmers. Based on those findings, we develop a two‐stage learning framework, in which farmers formulate yield expectations before deciding on how much effort to invest in learning about these processes. Using data centered on farmer beliefs, knowledge, and constraints, we find evidence that beliefs about potential yields hinge on first‐hand and local experience, and that these beliefs significantly impact learning efforts. Consistent with this, we find that farmers who participated in season‐long, farmer‐led demonstration plot cultivation plan to adopt more components of new multi‐component technology, compared to farmers who were invited to attend only field‐day events.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12135

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:wly:ajagec:v:103:y:2021:i:2:p:569-595

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in American Journal of Agricultural Economics from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().

 
Page updated 2024-12-29
Handle: RePEc:wly:ajagec:v:103:y:2021:i:2:p:569-595