Who communicates the information matters for technology adoption

The role of information in agricultural technology adoption in developing countries has been widely documented in the literature, but much less is known about the importance of the identity of the communicator of the information. We conduct a randomized experiment to assess the effects of information delivered through two approaches wherein either a peer farmer or a market actor supports the extension worker in communicating the standardized information regarding product-quality-enhancing practices and high-value market participation. Results show that farmers in the peer-farmer treatment arm improve the quality of their produce, whereas farmers in the market actor treatment participate in high-value markets to a larger extent than the extension-worker-only treatment farmers. We document positive but marginal treatment effects on coffee revenues. This study contributes to the literature by testing whether incorporating non-traditional communicators, such as private sector actors, into the extension programs is effective in removing the informational barriers to agricultural technology adoption.

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