Adoption and Impact of Agricultural Innovations: The Case of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Timor-Leste

Abstract: SRI is a promising method of rice cultivation accidentally discovered in the 1980s by a French missionary priest and agronomist that relies exclusively on changing farmers’ agronomic practices. Due to various reasons the international and national research systems have been very skeptical against the approach and SRI was developed mainly through on-farm research by practitioners. While there has been limited research in recent years, there is still little known about the adoption behavior and the impact of adoption on farm incomes.
Taking the case of Timor-Leste this project aims to identify the determinants of adoption as well as the impact of adoption on farm incomes. The analysis is based on comprehensive primary data collected through a survey of 400 randomly selected rice farmers in two districts of Timor Leste. The study will make use of various econometric techniques.
The project is carried out in close collaboration with the Second Rural Development Project for Timor Leste which is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).

Researchers involved: Dr. Stefan Schwarze, Martin Noltze

Funding: EU


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