Sustainable intensification amongst Ghana's pineapple farmers: the complexity of an innovation determines the effectiveness of its training

To foster the adoption of sustainable intensification practices amongst Ghana's farmers, they are widely promoted through training sessions provided by development organizations, companies, and the public extension service. We investigate whether these training sessions are effective and find t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environment and development economics 2018-02, Vol.23 (1), p.98-119
Main Authors: Wuepper, David, Sauer, Johannes, Kleemann, Linda
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access to information
Adoption of innovations
Agricultural extension
Agricultural practices
Clean technology
Companies
Complexity
Critical mass
Crops
Development economics
Effectiveness
Farmers
Fertilizers
Innovations
Legumes
Organic fertilizers
Peers
Pineapples
Profits
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Studies
Sustainability
Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable practices
Technological change
Technology adoption
Training
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:To foster the adoption of sustainable intensification practices amongst Ghana's farmers, they are widely promoted through training sessions provided by development organizations, companies, and the public extension service. We investigate whether these training sessions are effective and find that they are effective only for the diffusion of organic fertilizers but not for mulching. We suggest that this comes from the complexity of the innovations. Mulching is one of the simplest sustainable intensification technologies. It diffuses easily through peer learning and, after an initial training delivered to a critical mass of farmers, does not require training anymore. The use of organic fertilizers, in contrast, requires more specific knowledge and adaptation, which limits the effectiveness of peer learning and increases the effectiveness of training. This suggests that to achieve a widespread diffusion of sustainable intensification amongst Ghana's farmers, training sessions should focus on those practices that are complex and thus difficult to learn from peers.
ISSN:1355-770X
1469-4395
DOI:10.1017/S1355770X1700033X