Agricultural Technology Choice and Transport

Ali, Rubaba ; Barra, A. Federico ; Berg, Claudia N. ; Damania, Richard ; Nash, John D. ; Russ, Jason

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: LIVING STANDARDS;    TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGY;    PURCHASE PRICE;    COSTS OF TRAVEL;    PRICE OF FUEL;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7272
RP-ID  :  WPS7272

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper addresses an old andrecurring theme in development economics: the slow adoptionof new technologies by farmers in many developing countries.The paper explores a somewhat novel link to explain thispuzzle -- the link between market access and the incentivesto adopt a new technology when there are non-convexities.The paper develops a theoretical model to guide theempirical analysis, which uses spatially disaggregatedagricultural production data from Spatial ProductionAllocation Model and Living Standards Measurement Studysurvey data for Nigeria. The model is used to estimate theimpact of transport costs on crop production, the adoptionof modern technologies, and the differential impact onreturns of modern versus traditional farmers. To overcomethe limitation of data availability on travel costs for muchof Africa, road survey data are combined with geographicinformation road network data to generate the most thoroughand accurate road network available. With these data and theHighway Development Management Model, minimum travel costsfrom each location to the market are computed. Consistentwith the theory, analysis finds that transportation costsare critical in determining technology choices, with agreater responsiveness among farmers who adopt moderntechnologies, and at times a perverse (negative) response tolower transport costs among those who employ moretraditional techniques. In sum, the paper presentscompelling evidence that the constraints to the adoption ofmodern technologies and access to markets areinterconnected, and so should be targeted jointly.