“Risks greatly affect farmers’ decisions to adopt farm technologies”, says Maurice Ogada, who is presenting his research findings at the international Nordic Conference on Development Economics scheduled for June, 18 - 19 in Oslo, Norway.
"It is imperative to comprehensively tackle the factors that deter farmers from sufficiently adopting appropriate farm technologies. Without appropriate technology, agricultural productivity is jeopardized and agriculture becomes a threat to the environment". continues Maurice Ogada.
His findings on productivity confirm that technology adoption is indeed output-increasing and could be used as exit route from poverty, especially the rural poverty given that about 70 percent of the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa live in rural areas and largely depend on agriculture for income and livelihood.
“Generally, all technologies have a degree of risks associated with them and because farmers are risk averse, economic instruments to hedge against exposure to risks are necessary to motivate farmers to easily and quickly adopt the desired technologies. Formal crop insurance is one of the options that the government could consider” says Maurice Ogada.
His study is based on data from 321 households in Machakos and Taita Taveta Districts of Kenya focusing on maize production. Read more in Policy Brief