TY - JOUR
T1 - Information acquisition and the adoption of a new rice variety towards the development of sustainable agriculture in rural villages in Central Vietnam
AU - Le, Thi Quynh Anh
AU - Shimamura, Yasuharu
AU - Yamada, Hiroyuki
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research 18K18579). We are grateful to Prof. Keijiro Otsuka from Kobe University for critical comments. Great thanks are due to Prof. Ian Coxhead from the University of Wisconsin-Madison for helpful advice on improving our research ideas. We would like to convey our deep gratitude to Prof. Koji Yamazaki and Prof. Minato Nakazawa from Kobe University for providing useful feedback and suggestions. Data files of the study are available upon request.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - This paper examines the differential effects of the agricultural extension service and the information sharing among the peers on the adoption of a new rice variety towards sustainable agriculture, and then, estimates how the adoption contribute to the input and output of rice farming of households in small villages in Central Vietnam. By employing village-census panel data from original household surveys, our investigation shows that, while agricultural extension service motivated farmers to adopt the new rice variety in the initial period, information sharing among the peers facilitated further adoption in the following period. After an early boost from agricultural extension services, adoption largely took place through social learning among the peers. Social networks of the wives had a greater influence on new rice variety adoption than those of the husbands. By applying the combination of the difference-in-differences method and propensity score weighted regression, our results show that the new rice variety adoption improved productivity and reduced pesticide use. This paper reveals the benefits of the combination of information acquisition from agricultural extension and peers as effective pathways to disseminate environment-friendly agricultural practices in rural Central Vietnam.
AB - This paper examines the differential effects of the agricultural extension service and the information sharing among the peers on the adoption of a new rice variety towards sustainable agriculture, and then, estimates how the adoption contribute to the input and output of rice farming of households in small villages in Central Vietnam. By employing village-census panel data from original household surveys, our investigation shows that, while agricultural extension service motivated farmers to adopt the new rice variety in the initial period, information sharing among the peers facilitated further adoption in the following period. After an early boost from agricultural extension services, adoption largely took place through social learning among the peers. Social networks of the wives had a greater influence on new rice variety adoption than those of the husbands. By applying the combination of the difference-in-differences method and propensity score weighted regression, our results show that the new rice variety adoption improved productivity and reduced pesticide use. This paper reveals the benefits of the combination of information acquisition from agricultural extension and peers as effective pathways to disseminate environment-friendly agricultural practices in rural Central Vietnam.
KW - Information acquisition
KW - Social networks
KW - Technology adoption
KW - Vietnam
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U2 - 10.1016/j.wdp.2020.100262
DO - 10.1016/j.wdp.2020.100262
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85091797937
VL - 20
JO - World Development Perspectives
JF - World Development Perspectives
SN - 2452-2929
M1 - 100262
ER -