Incentives, Social Learning and Economic Development: Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Uganda

Technological innovations to address the adverse effects of climatic shocks on agriculture are widely promoted in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). At least three primary reasons have motivated such efforts. First, a majority of the poor in developing countries, including SSA, continue to reside in rural areas where rain-fed agriculture is the main source of livelihoods (Ravallion et al., 2007). Reliance on rain-fed agriculture coupled with low adaptive capacity means that rural economies in SSA are highly vulnerable to climatic shocks (Shiferaw et al., 2014). Second, productivity growth in agriculture is widely seen as a driver of structural transformation and economic growth for developing countries...