Can Agricultural Technology Diffusion be Harnessed to Reduce Malnutrition? Experimental Evidence from Uganda (original) (raw)
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Biofortification, crop adoption and health information: Impact pathways in Mozambique and Uganda
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Biofortification, breeding staple food crops to be dense sources of essential micronutrients, is fast emerging as a strategy to fight micronutrient malnutrition. Large scale biofortification investments are being made in several developing countries, but until recently little rigorous evidence about the impact of these investments has been available. In this paper, we report findings from randomized impact evaluations conducted in both Mozambique and Uganda to study the impact of large-scale pilot projects conducted between 2006 and 2009 to introduce provitamin-A-rich orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) as a strategy to reduce vitamin A deficiency. In both countries, projects randomly assigned interventions of di↵erent cost and intensity to distribute OFSP vines, train households to grow OFSP, and disseminate the health benefits of vitamin A. We compare the impact of the interventions within and across the two countries on OFSP adoption, knowledge about vitamin A, and dietary intake of vitamin A by children, and use causal mediation analysis to examine the impact pathways on vitamin A consumption. After two years of intervention, in both countries the project led to OFSP adoption rates of 61-68 percent among project households, improved household knowledge about vitamin A, and nearly doubled average dietary intake of vitamin A, with no di↵erence between the more and less intense intervention models. Evidence suggests that vine access played the most important role in explaining the impact on vitamin A consumption in both countries. Consequently, future programs can be designed to have similar impacts at even lower costs.
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We use data from a partial population experiment to examine how Ugandan farmers access and learn about a new agricultural technology from farmers in their information networks. The experiment introduced the vitamin A-rich orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) to participating farmer groups 48 communities in Uganda. In each community, members of exactly one farmer group were offered propagable OFSP vines and trainings on OFSP cultivation. We study OFSP diffusion to nearby farmers who are not members of the participating farmer group (whom we call nonmembers). We use experimentally-induced variation in the number and density of nonmember’s treated information neighbors, conditional on measures of network size, to identify the effects of increased information and resources within a network on OFSP diffusion. Nonmembers with at least one treated information neighbor are more likely to adopt OFSP. In contrast, among nonmembers who adopted OFSP in the intervention’s first season, those with ...
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This study estimates the impact of agricultural research, specifically improved maize seeds varieties, on agricultural productivity and welfare in Uganda using a three-wave panel survey. First, it looks at the determinants of technology adoption are examined in a dynamic setting that allows for state dependence, in the adoption decision process. The analysis shows that previous adoption is very important in explaining contemporary adoption. Then, it examines the impact of improved maize seeds adoption on welfare, notably consumption-expenditure, poverty, and agricultural outcomes such as yields. Findings show that the magnitude of impacts is fairly similar across the different models. Estimates for the daily per adult equivalent expenditure increased by a range of 5-16% as a result of agricultural technology (total agricultural production increased by a range of 5-13%) and the proportion poor set with the daily 2 US $PPP per capita poverty threshold decreased by a range of 4-12%. In addition, poverty reduction occurred through a rise in maize yields, where adoption of improved maize seeds increases the value of production and supports the achievement of poverty reduction outcomes. One major policy recommendation arising from this study is that extension services need to be better suited to address the volatility of the agricultural context where smallholders operate. Such extension support needs to be timely and tailored to the local context and the needs of rural smallholders in order to properly address their vulnerability and liquidity constraints, which prevent them from fully making a long-term profit from the substantial benefits of this technology.
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Increasing agricultural productivity by promoting high-yielding and micronutrient-rich crop varieties has the potential to reduce poverty and malnutrition. However, getting these technologies into the hands of smallholders remains a challenge. This paper presents results from a randomised field experiment that uses rural primary schools as dissemination hubs for improved orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) vines and nutrition information in rural Tanzania and Uganda. Two years after the initial vine distribution, we find that households in treatment villages are 21 percentage points more likely to report growing OFSP and 27 percentage points more likely to correctly state the nutritional benefits of OFSP compared to those in control villages. We also find up to 16 percentage point increase in the likelihood of OFSP consumption by children under 5 years of age in treatment villages compared to that in control villages. Furthermore, we find suggestive evidence that increased knowledge ...
Journal of Agricultural Research, Development, Extension and Technology, 2021
With vitamin A deficiency enduring as a major public health challenge for developing countries, the need for successful orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) delivery campaigns to fight the deficiency remains relevant. However, despite decades of OFSP delivery efforts in Uganda, OFSP acceptance is still low. This study examined the role of network effect (Metcalfe’s Law) on OFSP cultivation behavior among rural households in Uganda using a mixed methods design. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional survey data of 341 randomly selected farmers drawn from two rural districts in Uganda and an interview with a subsample of 42 farmers. The interviews were analyzed using content analysis where network effect concepts were used as data organizing themes. The study revealed OFSP acceptance to be associated with self-reinforcing socially-oriented factors espoused in network effect tradition. Specifically, mutual observation regarding OFSP agriculture resulted in low OFSP cultivation intensity, thereby making access to vines difficult, slowing experienced gratification of OFSP qualities and the attendant cultivation defections over time. The result has curtailed OFSP acceptance at community level, leading to the conclusion that network effects moderate farmers’ decisions to switch from cultivating white-fleshed sweetpotato (WFSP) to OFSP. We recommend the adaption of delivery strategies used in telecommunication innovations in delivery efforts of innovations such as OFSP, in order to nurture self-driven acceptance trajectories of these nutrient rich crops.
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