Seeding the seeds: Role of social structure in agricultural technology diffusion

Abstract

Exploiting a two-stage randomized introduction of flood resistant seeds at village and individual-levels, we find that the extent of agricultural technology diffusion in the long run has a significant correlation with the local social structure (e.g., the jati-caste system) in India. We leverage pre-determined village-level social group compositions, where some villages are relatively more homogeneous than the others, to examine subsequent diffusion of agricultural technology following the initial, randomized seeding over the next five years. There are two main take-away. First, modest overall difference in adoption between treated and control villages is largely explained by the degree of heterogeneity in village-level social composition. Second, we observe immediate diffusion among non-recipient farmers in the same social group as the initial, treated recipients and limited diffusion among groups with lower social ranks. These findings highlight the potential efficiency and equity limitations of randomized seeding of new technology in a context with market frictions and limited trade across social groups.