The challenges of encouraging innovative agriculture in LMICs

CANBERRA — Innovation has been one of the main drivers in agricultural production over the last decade, helping to reduce waste and improve yields. Céline Nauges, research director at the French Institute for Research in Agriculture, told Devex that in the coming decades as the world moves forward with its targets to feed a growing population nutritious food, it will continue to be an important factor in the success of these goals. “Innovation is important for us to understand because it helps increase productivity in agriculture and increasing productivity helps, of course, in increasing output — and global nutrition,” she said. The adoption of new technologies is one way to produce more and better food. But by analyzing the uptake of technology and innovation performance at the farm level, Nauges said there were risks farmers in low- and middle-income countries were being asked to take without surety. And this meant that innovation and new approaches were being rejected, favoring those with a more assured outcome. In studying the barriers to and successes in food security, Nauges said this was an important area research needed to focus on to better understand how new technology can be encouraged, and adapted where it worked. “Economists focus a lot on variance and viability,” she said. “But it's also important to look at the risk of failure. If there is a high risk of potential crop failure from a new technology, farmers who cannot afford to take that risk will take an alternative approach.” Technology uptake in LMICs The uptake of technology, Nauges explained, was difficult to compare between countries. But in general, she found that there were particular barriers in LMICs that prevented efficient technologies and techniques being applied in agricultural production. “International institutions are more aware now of the barriers to adoption, but they should further investigate the impact of using technology for the farmer’s profit.” --— Céline Nauges, research director, French Institute for Research in Agriculture “What we observe in general is that the adoption of new technologies seems to be lower than what is expected in developing countries,” she said. “In these countries, it is not as predictable as developed countries where people do seem to adopt new approaches and receive the expected benefits.” Constraints in LMICs, Nauges said, include lack of regulation providing a safety net where technology is used, as well as access to services. “As you know, it's also often more difficult in developing countries to get access to a loan,” she said. “There are other constraints including land rights and more which are barriers for adoption.” What influences the uptake of innovation? The uncertainty of the impact of innovation causes many farmers to take the known road on their production journey. But there are factors that Nauges said improve the uptake of new approaches — including education. “If the farmer is experienced or maybe a bit more educated or better informed on new techniques, there is a better chance that they will use the technology compared to a farmer that doesn't know much about that approach,” she said. In improving knowledge of new approaches and technology, Nauges suggested it was important to provide this knowledge to farmers — including providing them demonstrations of the implementation of new approaches. “When looking at data, you can observe that there may be some farmers who have adopted technology because their neighbors,” she said. “This could be because of learning or because they are thinking it is the new social norms. But they have more knowledge on the technology because of exposure.” Seasonality and outside factors or shocks can impact whether a new approach will improve yield — and being educated in advance ensures farmers can make an informed decision. But insurance can also play an important role in reducing risk to improve the quantity and quality of agricultural produce. “If you provide insurance against a risk of failure, then that risk is minimized,” Nauges said. But this was an area she said better government regulation was required to ensure these programs were trusted to encourage uptake, or did not create a burden of paperwork when claims were lodged. “It seems that this should be a very good instrument for farmers, but sometimes they don’t trust that they will receive the indemnity or they have to travel too far to get the insurance contracts,” Nauges said. Other areas of government action that were important to encourage uptake were subsidies for the new technology, putting money into the extension services to expand the number of extension agents, and facilitating farmers' access to credit if the innovation induces a significant cost. But the key was understanding the importance risk and uncertainty made in the decision to take up new approaches to agriculture, as well as to analyze whether the impact produces a better outcome — in produce and value. “International institutions are more aware now of the barriers to adoption, but they should further investigate the impact of using technology for the farmer’s profit. If you can do that, trying to assess the impact of innovation at the larger scale on prices and markets will support a financial incentive for adoption,” Nauges said.