Enhancing the diffusion of information about agricultural technology

We introduced a new seed variety to a subset of farmers across 100 rural Indian villages. Half of the villages were randomly allocated to receive an information treatment known as the farmer field day. The new seed variety was explained, selected adopters shared their experiences, and villagers were taken to the field to observe the crop during these events. We find that farmer field days improve the learning process and increase adoption in the following year by around 40 percent. Further analysis shows that the field days were both cost effective and more impactful for poorer farmers. JEL codes: O13, O33 ∗Emerick: Tufts University, 8 Upper Campus Road, Medford, MA 02155-6722 (e-mail: [email protected]); de Janvry: University of California at Berkeley, 207 Giannini Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3310 (e-mail:[email protected]); Sadoulet: University of California at Berkeley, 207 Giannini Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3310 (e-mail:[email protected]). Dar: International Rice Research Institute, New Delhi India (e-mail:[email protected]). We acknowledge financial support from the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. We are grateful to Ritadhi Chakravarti, Manaswini Rao, and Xinxin Lyu for excellent research assistance.