Production risk and adoption of irrigation technology: evidence from small-scale farmers in Chile

César Salazar,John Rand

doi:10.1007/s40503-016-0032-3

César Salazar, John Rand

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40503-016-0032-3

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Abstract

In most developing countries non-irrigation status often dominates adoption of traditional and modern irrigation technology. In this paper, we study the effect of production risk on irrigation technology choice among small-scale farmers in Chile, applying sample selection and discrete choice models. We find that more educated farmers, with credit access, receiving extension services, and living in communes with more adopters are more likely to use modern irrigation techniques. Moreover, production risk is often associated with adoption of traditional irrigation, and this risk often undermines a shift to more modern irrigation systems. Controlling for pre-conditions that determine irrigation choices clearly improves our understanding of small-scale farmer irrigation adoption decisions and we argue that weaker knowledge about and lower automatic diffusion of modern irrigation is a main obstacle for improving small-scale farmer productivity.

Highlights

Since the green revolution, agriculture in developing countries has experienced a technological transformation process principally driven by an increasing demand for agricultural products
Production risk is often associated with adoption of traditional irrigation, and this risk often undermines a shift to more modern irrigation systems
Controlling for pre-conditions that determine irrigation choices clearly improves our understanding of small-scale farmer irrigation adoption decisions and we argue that weaker knowledge about and lower automatic diffusion of modern irrigation is a main obstacle for improving small-scale farmer productivity

Summary

Introduction

Agriculture in developing countries has experienced a technological transformation process principally driven by an increasing demand for agricultural products. The aim of this paper is to study the effect of production risk on irrigation technology choices and discuss adoption of modern irrigation in settings where most rural households depend exclusively on rainfall for water supply. This is a particular feature in developing countries and zones characterized by abundance of precipitation.. This is a particular feature in developing countries and zones characterized by abundance of precipitation.2 We argue that the latter may give rise to potential sample selection problems in irrigation choices, which needs to be considered when analyzing the association between production risk and farm technology adoption. For modeling these irrigation choices, we as an example use agricultural census data of potato family farmers in Chile

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