This dissertation is composed of three essays examining adoption and impact of agricultural technologies. The first two papers estimate adoption and impact of iron-biofortified bean varieties in Rwanda. These varieties are bred to have high iron content and high yields to improve the health and livelihoods of rural households. The third essay estimates the spillover effects of seed producer groups (SPGs) in Nepal on nearby non-SPG member households. These SPGs were established to produce and sell stress tolerant rice varieties (STRVs) and other improved rice varieties and were trained on a number of improved management practices for rice cultivation.
The first essay, titled "Promoting rapid and sustained adoption of biofortified crops: What we learned from iron-biofortified bean delivery approaches in Rwanda" uses duration modeling to estimate how a number of delivery approaches designed to distribute iron-biofortified bean varieties to farmers have increased the speed of adoption, reduced the speed of disadoption, and increased the speed of readoption of iron-biofortified bean varieties. We find that these delivery approaches have been very effective at promoting adoption and reducing disadoption. Policy makers can learn lessons from this research regarding distribution of biofortified crops in Rwanda and elsewhere.
The second essay, titled "The impact of iron-biofortified bean adoption on bean productivity, consumption, purchases and sales" examines the impact of adoption of the most popular iron-biofortified bean variety, RWR2245, on adopting households. We use a control function approach with instrumental variables related to iron-biofortified bean delivery approaches to control for selection bias of adoption. We find that adoption increases yield, household bean consumption from own-production, and bean sales while reducing bean purchases. This implies that iron-biofortified bean adoption has a strong potential to improve nutrition and food security of adopting households, as beans make up a large portion of the average Rwandan diet.
The third and final essay, titled "The spillover effects of seed producer groups on non-member households in local communities in Nepal" examines the spillover benefits of SPGs onto non-member farmers in villages with an SPG or are adjacent to a village with an SPG. We find that SPGs have increased adoption of STRVs, improved the seed replacement rate, and increased use of some best management practices among non-members within SPG villages, and have increased adoption of the STRVs in at least one past seasons among non-members in adjacent villages. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation consists of three essays that examine adoption and impact of agricultural technologies that are designed to help rural households in developing countries improve their livelihoods. The first two papers focus on iron-biofortified bean varieties in Rwanda. These bean varieties have high iron content and are also high yielding. They are designed to combat iron-deficiency within the country. The government of Rwanda distributed the bean varieties to households using a number of different delivery approaches. We study the influence of these approaches and find that households who are closer to them adopt the varieties faster and disadopt the varieties more slowly, indicating that they have been successful in promoting adoption. The second paper of this dissertation studies the impact that one of the iron-biofortified bean varieties has had on adopting households. We find that adoption increases household bean yields and bean consumption from own-production, while reducing bean purchases and increasing the likelihood that a household sells beans. This provides evidence that iron-biofortification improves iron consumption for households that adopt the varieties, because they consume greater quantities of their iron-rich bean harvests, and improves household income through reductions in purchases and increased likelihood of sales. Finally, our third paper examines Seed Producer Groups (SPGs) in Nepal in which member farmers produce and sell rice varieties that are tolerant to drought. We find that for non-SPG members, living in or near a village with an SPG increases their likelihood of growing a drought-tolerant variety. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the literature on adoption and impacts of agricultural technologies and provides useful guidelines for policy makers wishing to promote these and other technologies. This can inform future funding allocation and maximize impacts of development projects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/95552 |
| Date | 14 November 2019 |
| Creators | Vaiknoras, Kate |
| Contributors | Agricultural and Applied Economics, Larochelle, Catherine, Norton, George W., Alwang, Jeffrey R., You, Wen |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
Page generated in 0.0016 seconds