Constraints to the Adoption of Agricultural Innovations

Abstract

This paper argues that much of the discussion about constraints to the adoption of agricultural innovations is muddled because the distinction between variables that are endogenous to the fit between an innovation and a specified group of potential users, and those that are exogenous (that is, prerequisite conditions), is seldom made explicit during the innovation-development process. This distinction, which can emerge through a design-specification exercise, locates a much greater degree of responsibility for the eventual adoption outcome – whether positive or negative – within the innovation-development process itself. To continue to cite exogenous factors such as inappropriate land-tenure arrangements or lack of output markets as constraints to the adoption of innovations is to miss a fundamental step within the innovation-development process.