Agricultural Technology Adoption Among Smallholder Farmers: Evidence From a Development Project in Northern Uganda

Agricultural development projects are expected to result in better livelihoods and welfare for target communities. However, questions remain as to whether these projects yield the expected outcomes which includes increased farm incomes. These expected outcomes usually arise from adoption of technologies and/or practices promoted under such projects. This study investigated the effect of technology adoption (TA) from an agricultural development project on beneficiary farmers’ farm income and their household’s expenditure. A cross‐sectional research design was used to sample 379 former project beneficiaries randomly. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the instrumental variable (IV) local average treatment effects (LATEs) model in STATA. Results showed that approximately 80% of the project beneficiaries adopted at least one of the crop production technologies promoted. This adoption rate was influenced by factors such as farming experience and gender, among others. The treatment effects results showed that adoption had a positive impact on farm income, with inconclusive evidence for expenditure. Additionally, the level of farm income was influenced by use of land owned, use of ox‐plow, and farmer’s experience. On the other hand, the level of expenditure was influenced by farmers’ level of education, use of hired labor, and farmer’s experience. Our findings show that adoption has a direct effect on farm income and consequently household welfare. For sustained adoption, there is a need for context specific programs that address the bottlenecks of adoption, including aspects of gender, as well as ownership of assets such as ox‐plows and land, which have all been shown to influence the level of adoption.