Village networks and entrepreneurial farming in Uganda

The transition from semi-subsistence farming to more entrepreneurial farming by the adoption of new crops or improved seeds is important for poverty reduction in developing countries. In rural societies, farmers' propensity to experiment with new technologies is influenced by their access to information and support, provided by networks of friends and relatives. Considering that the same connection can share both information and support, we study the separate effects as well as the interaction of both net-work functions. Using two waves of data from a sample of Ugandan farmers, we find that the propensity to adopt new crops or improved seeds increases with the number of friends or relatives who adopted new crops or improved seeds before. The effect on the adoption of new crops is stronger if the same friends or relatives also provide support in the form of gifts or loans. At the same time, we find a positive effect of support that is conditional on friends or relatives having adopted new crops before.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

The transition from semi-subsistence farming to more entrepreneurial farming by adopting new crops or improved seeds is crucial for poverty reduction in developing countries. The propensity of farmers in rural societies to experiment with new technologies is influenced by the information and support provided by networks of friends and relatives. Analysis of data from Ugandan farmers reveals that the adoption of new crops or improved seeds increases with the number of friends or relatives who have previously adopted them. Moreover, the effect is stronger when these connections also provide support in the form of gifts or loans.