Jenny Aker (Tufts University)

Let it Rain: What Drives the Adoption of Environmental Technologies in the Sahel?

Résumé

While it is widely recognized that sustained yield improvements in areas with highly degraded soils require intensive agricultural practices, the sustained adoption of these techniques remains low.Using a randomized control trial of informational and income interventions in Niger, we find that both training and cash transfers significantly increase the extensive and intensive margin of adoption. In addition, we find large impacts of these interventions on agricultural production, asset and livestock ownership and household diet diversity in a country where soil degradation, agricultural production and diet diversity are among some of the worst in the world.While adoption drops off in the second year, there is no evidence of disadoption, and the training intervention alone is as effective as the intervention that combines training with cash transfers. Overall, these results suggest that simple information that can be cost-effective in improving welfare outcomes.