Publication

Adopting agroforestry

Pattanayak, S. K., D. E. Mercer, E. O. Sills, and K. Cassingham

There is a growing interest in the study of agroforestry adoption because it is promoted as a technology that can generate a sustainable version of development in which economic growth occurs in tandem with 'sustenance' or protection of ecological capital. Conventional wisdom suggests that agroforestry provides substantial economic and ecological benefits to communities and households and, therefore, should be readily adopted by farmers. Yet, many attempts to promote agroforestry systems have resulted in inadequate rates of adoption. We review the literature on technological innovations in general to identify the determinants of adoption within an economic framwork. We find five categories of determinants of technology adoption: preferences, resource endowments, economic incentirives, biophysical factors, and risk and uncertainty. We then analyze 56 articles on adoption of agricultural and forestry technology by small holders to evaluate these factor-clusters. Ultimately, based on the criteria of (a) empirical analysis and (b) focus on agroforestry and soil-water conservation investments, we narrow our list down to 26 studies from 17 countries. We discuss in detail the direction of influence of variables in each category.

Fiscal Year: fy02 ·  Problem Area: pa98-5 ·  Theme: cctrgnas ·  Source: resunit   <== Explain

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