Social relationships impact adoption of agricultural technologies: the case of food crop varieties in Timor-Leste

Liv Pommer Jensen*, Kim Picozzi, Octavio da Costa Monteiro de Almeida, Marcelino de Jesus da Costa, Luc Spyckerelle, William Erskine

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Factors related to adoption of new agricultural technologies have been given increasing attention, especially in developing countries where such technologies offer opportunities to increase food production. One of the most immediate ways to improve food production significantly is through the adoption of high yielding varieties of food crops, but rates of adoption are often low, especially among the rural poor. In Timor-Leste, improved varieties of food crops with yield advantages across all agro-ecological zones have been introduced. However, despite yield advantages, suitability and high levels of food insecurity, discontinuance occurs and adoption rates are low. To identify factors related to adoption of the improved varieties across agro-ecological zones, binary logistic regression was performed on data collected from 1511 rural households. The results identified several factors related to adoption and showed that their impact varied across agro-ecological zones. The factor most strongly related to adoption was having a relationship to a grower of an improved variety of food crop and the closeness of this relationship. Furthermore, the following factors were related to adoption with variation across agro-ecological zones: age; education; size of farming plots; travel time between household and farming plot; involvement with the programme developing the improved varieties of food crops and participation in groups and training programmes. Overall, the findings of this study emphasize that dissemination strategies should embrace social relationships and be sensitive to agro-ecological zones.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)397-409
Number of pages13
JournalFood Security
Volume6
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2014

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Adoption
  • Agricultural technologies
  • Social relationships
  • Agro-ecological zone
  • Improved food crop varieties
  • Timor-Leste
  • DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES
  • WATER CONSERVATION
  • CONCEPTUAL-FRAMEWORK
  • SOIL CONSERVATION
  • BURKINA-FASO
  • EAST TIMOR
  • INNOVATIONS
  • FARMERS
  • DIFFUSION
  • HIGHLANDS

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