AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION AND NONFARM EARNINGS IN UGANDA: A SEMIPARAMETRIC ANALYSIS

• Published in: The Journal of developing areas Vol. 49; no. 2; pp. 145 - 162
• Main Authors: Diiro, Gracious M., Sam, Abdoul G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nashville College of Business at Tennessee State University 01.04.2015; Tennessee State University College of Business; Tennessee State University; Journal of Developing Areas
• Subjects: Agricultural biotechnology; Agricultural economics; Agricultural industry; Agricultural production; Agricultural technology; Agriculture; Agroecology; Analysis; Corn; Developing countries; Earnings; Economic aspects; Estimators; Family income; Farm economics; Farmers; Farming; Fertilizers; Household income; Households; Innovation adoption; International economic relations; LDCs; Poverty; R&D; Research & development; Rural areas; Studies; Subsistence farming; Technology; Technology adoption; Uganda; Uganda
• ISSN: 0022-037X; 1548-2278; 1548-2278
• DOI: 10.1353/jda.2015.0013

Household diversification into nonfarm work activities is a major rural livelihood strategy in many developing economies. In this paper, we explore empirically if rural households in Uganda leverage their nonfarm earnings to overcome credit constraints and invest in high yielding maize seed varieties. We use a semiparametric estimator of binary outcomes that accommodates endogenous regressors straightforwardly to estimate the effect of nonfarm income on technology adoption decisions. Our results show that nonfarm income has a positive and significant effect on the adoption of improved maize seed.