This study examines the constraints to technology adoption faced by smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries. It evaluates the relative efficacy of interventions designed to incentivize the production and consumption of a biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato crop by female farmers in Uganda. Using a clustered randomized controlled trial involving more than 8000 female farmers across 210 communities, the analysis tracks impacts on adoption, consumption, and health outcomes in both the short term and long term. The findings indicate that provision of inputs and agricultural extension effectively promotes adoption, with over 60% of households cultivating and 50% consuming the crop. Nutrition training has limited impact on cultivation but increases consumption by 20%. Combining these approaches with supplementary credit and insurance shows limited marginal effects. Improvements in dietary diversity and spillover effects are observed, with little evidence of impacts on higher-order outcomes.
Authors: Buehren, Niklas; Chowdhury, Shyamal; Papineni, Sreelakshmi; and Sulaiman, Munshi
Type: Journal Article
Year: 2025
