Social networking and risk attitudes nexus: implication for technology adoption among smallholder cassava farmers in Ghana

Abstract

Abstract Background Theoretically, social climate and social networking which may affect attitudes, motivations, and readiness towards quality improvement and rewards, influence the adoption decision process by possibly modifying the risk behaviour/attitudes of individuals. Thus for effective promotion of agricultural technologies among farmers in Africa, it is necessary to understand the social context within which risk attitudes are formed and social participation decisions are made. The study, therefore, employed the recursive bivariate endogenous switching probit model to examine how risk attitudes of farmers are shaped through social interactions in the information and communication networks of farmers to influence their technology adoption decisions. Here, the empirical application was done with the contextual case of agriculture intensification technologies in the Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme (RTIMP) introduced to smallholder cassava farmers in Ghana. This paper makes a contribution to recent advances in the empirical analysis of impact where anticipated problems posed by unobserved confounders are accounted for. This was possible since the approach used allows for the estimation of the treatment effect of endogenous risk attitude variable of interest on farmers’ adoption decisions. Results The study found that the effectiveness and usefulness of social interactions as well as a high degree of trust by cassava farmers in their social networks have higher tendencies to lower the degree of risk aversion behaviour of the farmers to significantly influence RTIMP Technologies adoption decisions positively. The ATE estimate confirms that there has been a significant increase of 38% probability in the likelihood of adopting agricultural intensification technologies in the RTIMP attributable to the non-risk aversion attitudes of cassava farmers. The cassava farmers’ risk attitudes were found to be significantly influenced by the effectiveness and usefulness of social interactions, and a high degree of trust as well as age, frequency of extension services, access to credit, and revenue. Conclusion By implication, attempts to introduce innovations to improve agricultural commodities value chains that target farmers must pay particular attention to the information and communication network to ensure the effectiveness and usefulness of information dissemination to farmers in an honest manner, so as to build trust; which will go a long way to reduce doubts and uncertainties (function of risk aversion). This will help achieve higher innovation adoption impacts thereby resulting in attaining the overall deliverable objectives of agricultural innovations.