Adoption and diffusion of conservation agriculture technology in Zambia: the role of social and institutional networks

This study utilizes recall data from smallholder farmers in selected provinces in Zambia to examine the role of social and institutional networks, as well as other farm and household factors in the adoption and diffusion of conservation agriculture (CA) technology. We employed a dynamic discrete-time hazard model to capture the time path to adoption. The empirical results show that conditional on several potentially confounding factors, conservation agriculture technology adoption and diffusion are positively and significantly influenced by farmers’ access to information from social networks and institutional networks like extension services. Adoption decisions are also found to be significantly influenced by age, education, market distance, as well as location fixed effects.