@article{6d0102a428f2471e9adc02a1fa15d1b2,
title = "Experimental evidence on adoption and impact of the system of rice intensification",
abstract = "We report the results of a large-scale, multi-year experimental evaluation of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), an innovation that first emerged in Madagascar in the 1980s and has now diffused to more than fifty countries. Using a randomized training saturation design with a pure control group, we find that greater cross-sectional or intertemporal intensity of direct or indirect training exposure to SRI has a sizable, positive effect on Bangladeshi farmers' propensity to adopt (and not to disadopt) SRI. We find large, positive, and significant impacts of SRI training on rice yields and profits, as well as multiple household well-being indicators, for both trained and untrained farmers in training villages. We also find high rates of disadoption, and clear indications of non-random selection into technology adoption conditional on randomized exposure to training, such that adopters and non-adopters within the same treatment arm experience similar outcomes. Rice yields, profits, and household well-being outcomes do not, however, vary at the intensive margin with intensity of training exposure, a finding consistent with multi-object learning models.",
keywords = "Agricultural development, Bangladesh, BRAC, diffusion, innovation, learning, O13, O33, Q12, Q16, technology adoption",
author = "Barrett, {Christopher B.} and Asad Islam and {Mohammad Malek}, Abdul and Debayan Pakrashi and Ummul Ruthbah",
note = "Funding Information: Christopher B. Barrett is the Stephen B. & Janice G. Ashley Professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management of Cornell University; Asad Islam is a professor and director of the Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability at Monash University, Australia; Abdul Mohammad Malek is an associate professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Tsukuba, Japan; Debayan Pakrashi is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology‐Kanpur, India; Ummul Ruthbah is a Senior Research Fellow at Monash Business School, Australia. We are grateful to Marcel Fafchamps and Sisira Jayasuriya for detailed discussions on many aspects of the project and to the International Growth Centre (IGC) for financial support. We thank the former executive director of BRAC, the late Mahabub Hossain, who gave us much encouragement and project support. Sakiba Tasneem provided excellent research assistance. Latiful Haque and Tanvir Shatil from BRAC Research and Evaluation Division (RED) were instrumental in conducting the field survey work, as were Abid Kabir and Sirajul Islam from BRAC Agriculture and Food Security Program (AFSP) in coordinating the SRI training treatment. Mohammad Abdul Malek was affiliated with BRAC Research and Evaluation Division (RED) during conducting field work and experiment. We thank Erich Battistin, Leah Bevis, Michael Carter, Paul Christian, Brian Dillon, Kyle Emerick, Yuki Higuchi, Garth Holloway, Molly Ingram, Heidi Kaila, Jeffrey LaFrance, Erin Lentz, Anke Leroux, Travis Lybbert, Annemie Maertens, Andy McDonald, Mushfiq Mobarak, Christine Moser, Vesall Nourani, Eleonora Patacchini, James Stevenson, Erika Styger, Norman Uphoff, Faraz Usmani, Michael Ward, Carrie Young, editor Terry Hurley, two anonymous reviewers, and seminar and conference participants at ANU, BRAC, Cornell, Department of Agriculture Extension of the Government of Bangladesh, IFPRI, IGC Dhaka, Japanese Association for Development Economics, Maryland, Melbourne, Monash, NC‐1034, Stanford, and the World Bank for helpful comments and background conversations. An earlier version circulated under the title “The Effects of Exposure Intensity on Technology Adoption and Gains: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh on the System of Rice Intensification.” Any remaining errors are ours alone. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "2022",
month = jan,
doi = "10.1111/ajae.12245",
language = "English",
volume = "104",
pages = "4--32",
journal = "American Journal of Agricultural Economics",
issn = "0002-9092",
publisher = "John Wiley & Sons",
number = "1",
}