The Demand for Advice : Theory and Empirical Evidence from Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa
Low levels of investment into modern technologies, and limited use of measures that have low monetary cost but the potential for high yields, are often regarded as obstacles to further agricultural development. This paper investigates farmers’ dema...
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/885441612294787514/The-Demand-for-Advice-Theory-and-Empirical-Evidence-from-Farmers-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35105 |
| Summary: | Low levels of investment into modern
technologies, and limited use of measures that have low
monetary cost but the potential for high yields, are often
regarded as obstacles to further agricultural development.
This paper investigates farmers’ demand for one such
measure, namely agricultural advisory services. These have
modest (most frequently zero) monetary user cost but,
according to some recent research, have the potential to
result in large increases of yields. Yet, demand for these
extension services is often low. This study proposes that
costly attention may be part of the explanation for this. In
the model, advisory services are available free of charge,
but positive effects on production are only realized if
farmers devote attention to listening to and implementing
the provided advice. Modeling farmers as rational decision
makers facing scarce attention, the study identifies the
circumstances under which farmers may optimally abstain from
demanding advisory services. The model complements the
insights of other theories commonly used to explain
suboptimal farm decisions and outcomes, and generates
testable predictions, which are consistent with empirical
evidence based on a large farm-level panel dataset from
Sub-Saharan Africa. |
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