Hybrid agricultural extension and the adoption of climate-resilient varieties: Evidence from oil palm in the Amazon

IF 6 1区经济学 Q1 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY

Food Policy Pub Date : 2025-09-15 DOI:10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102952

Alejandro Estefan , Romina Ordoñez , Cristina Parilli , Paul Winters

{"title":"Hybrid agricultural extension and the adoption of climate-resilient varieties: Evidence from oil palm in the Amazon","authors":"Alejandro Estefan , Romina Ordoñez , Cristina Parilli , Paul Winters","doi":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102952","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate change is forcing farmers worldwide to adopt more resilient crop varieties, but optimizing the yields of these varieties often requires new farming practices. We study whether hybrid agricultural extension can increase farmers’ knowledge and adoption of key practices needed to maximize the productivity of a pathogen-resistant hybrid oil palm variety in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Using a randomized field experiment involving palm farmers in two provinces, we test the separate and joint effects of in-person field days and personalized digital nudges. We find that field days and digital nudges are substitutes for improving farmers’ knowledge but affect digital engagement differently: In-person training raises engagement with sequential learning content, while digital nudges increase attention to specific, actionable information. Crucially, only in-person training leads to significant adoption of pollination practices and increased hybrid palm area. Our findings highlight both the promise and limits of digital-only extension models for supporting the adoption of resilient crops and associated yield-enhancing practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":321,"journal":{"name":"Food Policy","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 102952"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Food Policy","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919225001575","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Climate change is forcing farmers worldwide to adopt more resilient crop varieties, but optimizing the yields of these varieties often requires new farming practices. We study whether hybrid agricultural extension can increase farmers’ knowledge and adoption of key practices needed to maximize the productivity of a pathogen-resistant hybrid oil palm variety in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Using a randomized field experiment involving palm farmers in two provinces, we test the separate and joint effects of in-person field days and personalized digital nudges. We find that field days and digital nudges are substitutes for improving farmers’ knowledge but affect digital engagement differently: In-person training raises engagement with sequential learning content, while digital nudges increase attention to specific, actionable information. Crucially, only in-person training leads to significant adoption of pollination practices and increased hybrid palm area. Our findings highlight both the promise and limits of digital-only extension models for supporting the adoption of resilient crops and associated yield-enhancing practices.

查看原文本刊更多论文

杂交农业推广和适应气候变化品种的采用：来自亚马逊油棕的证据

气候变化正迫使世界各地的农民采用更有弹性的作物品种，但优化这些品种的产量往往需要新的耕作方法。我们研究了杂交农业推广是否可以增加农民的知识和采用关键实践，以最大限度地提高厄瓜多尔亚马逊地区抗病原体杂交油棕品种的生产力。通过对两个省的棕榈农进行随机田间试验，我们测试了亲自田间日和个性化数字推动的单独和联合效应。我们发现，实地考察日和数字推动是提高农民知识的替代品，但对数字参与的影响不同：面对面培训提高了对顺序学习内容的参与，而数字推动增加了对具体、可操作信息的关注。至关重要的是，只有亲自培训才能导致授粉实践的显著采用和杂交棕榈面积的增加。我们的研究结果突出了数字推广模式在支持采用抗灾作物和相关增产实践方面的前景和局限性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Food Policy 管理科学-农业经济与政策

CiteScore

11.40

自引率

4.60%

发文量

128

审稿时长

62 days

期刊介绍： Food Policy is a multidisciplinary journal publishing original research and novel evidence on issues in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of policies for the food sector in developing, transition, and advanced economies. Our main focus is on the economic and social aspect of food policy, and we prioritize empirical studies informing international food policy debates. Provided that articles make a clear and explicit contribution to food policy debates of international interest, we consider papers from any of the social sciences. Papers from other disciplines (e.g., law) will be considered only if they provide a key policy contribution, and are written in a style which is accessible to a social science readership.