AGRODEP Workshop: Evaluation of Interventions on Agricultural Technology Adoption

In early November, AGRODEP held a workshop in Dakar, Senegal on Evaluation of Interventions on Agricultural Technology Adoption. At the workshop, participants learned to identify the determinants of and constraints to technology adoption, as well as approaches to promote technology adoption. They were also taught the use of field experiments methods to analyze technology adoption and engaged in Stata exercises for econometric analysis and analysis of data from field experiments. Participant teams also put together research proposals on technology adoption. Teams consisted of an economist/econometrician and a project manager/policy maker. They were recruited through a call AGRODEP members and through proposals made by the World Bank through WAAPP/PPAAO. Applications were received from 15 teams, 8 through AGRODEP and 4 through the World Bank/CORAF.

The workshop was instructed by: 

  • Tanguy Bernard, professor at the University of Bordeaux and senior research fellow at IFPRI.
  • Elisabeth Sadoulet, professor at the University of California at Berkeley and senior fellow at FERDI.
  • Alain de Janvry, professor at the University of California at Berkeley and senior fellow at FERDI.

For the quantitative exercises, participants were assisted by two Master students in economics/statistics from the University of Dakar:

  • Nisan Armand Coulibaly
  • Ibrahima Aidara

The following were the AGRODEP-sponsored research teams: 

  • Rwanda: Mercyline Kamande and Richard Niwenshuti: Adoption of technologies to reduce post-harvest losses
  • Cameroon: Francis Hypolite Kemeze KEMEZE and Belmondo V. Tanakem: Adoption of micro-catchment technologies for water harvesting
  • Nigeria: Oluwole Akinnagbe and Charles Olawale Farayola: Impact of access to meteorological information
  • Nigeria: Adebusola Adepoju and Olujoba Alaba Onabamiji: Adoption and impact of orange flesh sweet potato

CORAF-sponsored teams included:

  • Ghana: Bright Asante and Moses Brandford Mochiah: Impact of positive selection technique and improved agronomic practices on productivity and incomes of seed yam farmers in Ghana
  • Sierra Leone: Osman Nabay and Abdul Conteh: Promoting small scale mobile processing equipment for adoption of improved varieties of cassava in Sierra Leone
  • Liberia: Jacob Kolleh (Edward Borloh had to cancel at the last minute. He was replaced by an IFPRI staff member to serve as partner to Mr. Kolleh): Improving rice yield through training of farmers for proper nutrient management in an iron toxic environment in Liberia
  • Nigeria: Charles Dawang and James Apochi: Impact of value chain improvement on dietary quality and diversity of aquaculture smallholders in Nigeria

The event was co-sponsored by the Institut des Hautes Etudes du Développement Durable (IHEDD) based at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in France. Other sponsoring and/or participating organizations included FERDI (Fondation pour les Études et Recherches sur le Développement International), ATAI (Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative), The World Bank under the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP) and the PPAAO (Programme de productivité agricole en Afrique de l’Ouest, IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute, and CORAF/WECARD (Conseil Ouest et Centre africain pour la recherche et le développement agricoles).