Paper detail

The pain of a new idea: Do Late Bloomers response to Extension Service in Rural Ethiopia?

The paper analyses the efficiency of extension programs in the adoption of chemical fertilisers in Ethiopia between 1994 and 2004. Fertiliser adoption provides a suitable strategy to ensure and stabilize food production in remote vulnerable areas. Extension services programs have a long history in supporting the application of fertiliser. How-ever, their efficiency is questioned. In our analysis, we focus on seven villages with a considerable time lag in fertiliser diffusion. Using matching techniques avoids sample selection bias in the comparison of treated (households received extension service) and controlled households. Additionally to common factors, measures of culture, proxied by ethnicity and religion, aim to control for potential tensions between extension agents and peasants that hamper the efficiency of the program. We find a considerable impact of extension service on the first fertiliser adoption. The impact is consistent for five of seven villages.