Publications

Working papers 

Does Training Farmers on Multiple Technologies Deter Adoption? Evidence from a Farm Management Training Program in Bangladesh (with Anubhab Gupta, Binoy Majumder, Mahamitra Das and Rangaswamy Muniappan) 

Abstract: To boost agricultural production, recent studies of technology adoption consistently suggest the adoption of integrated farm management systems. However, a limitation of these studies is the absence of a rigorous analysis of the profitability of new technologies, which are a package of several practices. Our paper fills this gap by studying the economic impacts of a training program that provided a comprehensive set of recommendations, including information on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), and agronomic suggestions, to groundnut farmers in rural Bangladesh. Using reduced-form econometric analyses, we assess the impact of the training program on input usage and costs, utilization of recommendations, yield, and profit. Our findings suggest that if farmers receive information and training on several low- and high-cost technologies together, they are more likely to adopt only the low-cost ones, which makes the training program undesirable for the adoption of high-cost technologies. 

Work In Progress 

Demonstration, Extension, and Group Learning in Agricultural Technology Adoption in Rural Bangladesh

Abstract: Despite the seemingly plausible yield and income gains from integrated farm management systems, adoption of several technologies within such systems remains low in developing country agriculture. Beyond several demand- and supply-side constraints related to new technologies, farmer heterogeneity and the complexity of recommendations during training programs make it harder for farmers to adopt new technologies. We explore the roles of demonstration, extensive (throughout-the-season) extension services, group learning, and risk preferences in explaining the varying levels of adoption by groundnut farmers in rural Bangladesh. We utilize a quasi-randomized experimental design in which contiguous fields are randomly assigned to receive the treatment. A group of 10 farmers in the treatment fields received training, demonstration, extension, and learned from spatially geographic neighbors, which was led by a team leader chosen by the group. The groups of farmers from randomly chosen control fields provided counterfactual outcomes. The intervention consisted of two phases: first, groundnut farmers received a one-day training on integrated pest management (IPM) technologies in their respective groups; second, the treatment farmers were demonstrated on how to use the technologies and were given detailed extension services in the form of reminders or “soft nudges” to use the new inputs at appropriate times during the growing season. Using several reduced-form econometric specifications, we compare a range of groundnut outcomes across the groups of treatment farmers to the comparable control groups at the end of the 2024 groundnut growing season. We find significant positive impacts of the program on the uptake of new IPM technologies, and consequently on groundnut yields and profits. Our paper highlights the role of demonstration, extension, and learning in groups on agricultural technology adoption in settings where a typical one-day training program fails to succeed in the adoption of new technologies.