Can targeting information to network-central farmers induce more adoption of a new agricultural technology? By combining social network data and field experiment in 200 villages Malawi, we find that central is important spur the diffusion process. We also provide evidence one explanation for why centrality matters: process governed by complex contagion. Our results are consistent with model whi...

© 2008 The Authors Journal compilation © 2008 Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc. and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8489.2007.00433.x Blackwell Publishing Ltd Oxford, UK AJAR ustralian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 1364-985X 4 7 8489 © 2008 The Authors Journ compi ati © 2008 A stralian Agricultural and Re ource Economics Society i...

Agricultural development thinking has gone through several stages of fad and fancy, often without an understanding of previous fallacies. Its current doldrums are unfortunate given the unrivaled importance of agricultural development for poverty reduction in most development countries. After reviewing several policy and program areas, lessons are synthesized, and a forward-looking research fram...

BACKGROUND agricultural pesticide poisoning is a major public health problem in the developing world, killing at least 250,000-370,000 people each year. Targeted pesticide restrictions in Sri Lanka over the last 20 years have reduced pesticide deaths by 50% without decreasing agricultural output. However, regulatory decisions have thus far not been based on the human toxicity of formulated agri...

This paper explores the effects of monitoring in contracts between an exporting firm and small agricultural producers in Madagascar. Building on a theoretical framework that incorporates both adverse selection and moral hazard, I test for the effect of monitoring of the agents by the principal on productivity, all the while including an estimate of agent-specific technical inefficiency in the r...

Sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) that lead to an increase in productivity are central to the acceleration of economic growth; this will alleviate poverty and help to overcome the recurrent food shortages that affect millions of households in Africa. However, the adoption rates of SAPs remain below expected levels. This paper analyzes the factors that facilitate or impede the probabilit...

Using detailed household-level data from Malawi on physical quantities of agricultural outputs and inputs, we measure farm total factor productivity (TFP), controlling for land quality, rain, transitory shocks. We find that operated size capital are essentially unrelated to TFP, implying substantial misallocation. The output gain a reallocation factors their efficient use among existing farmers...

In developing countries markets for agri-food products are changing at a pace that is unparalleled in modern history. Markets are increasingly open and increasingly homogenized toward international tastes and requirements for levels of quality, packaging, safety, and even process attributes such as socially or environmentally friendly methods. New distribution channels, dominated by larger firm...

We compare outcomes across two types of villages in a poor region of rural India. The two types of villages systematically vary by which caste is dominant, i.e., the caste group which owns the majority of land. The dominant caste is either from an upper caste or a lower backward caste. The key finding is that income is substantially higher for low caste households residing in villages dominated...