Improved agricultural input delivery systems for enhancing technology adoption: evidence from a field experiment in Ethiopia

In this study, we test the hypothesis that small-scale testing can reduce the risk and
uncertainty of trying new technologies. We conducted a field experiment, in a cluster
randomised control trial setting, to examine whether the availability of divisible packages of seeds influences smallholder farmers’ decisions to try a new wheat variety. Our
results show that the adoption of the newly introduced wheat variety was higher in the
villages where small seed packages were introduced. We find that smallholder farmers tend to experiment on the newly introduced variety on their farmland and are less
likely to adopt the new variety as a coping mechanism for risk exposure at the stage of
experimentation. The results from treatment heterogeneity reveal that supplying seed
in small bags had differential causal effects on individual farmers. The intervention
which made small seed bags available impacted relatively younger and poorer farmers the most. This finding provides an insight into the significance of seed delivery in
small bags to improve the use of seeds of new varieties by smallholders