Confidence and information usage: Evidence from soil testing in India

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cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and developing country institute
cg.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Florida
cg.contributor.affiliationTel Aviv University
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Food Policy Research Institute
cg.contributor.donorBill & Melinda Gates Foundation
cg.contributor.donorInternational Growth Centre
cg.contributor.donorTel Aviv University
cg.contributor.donorInternational Food Policy Research Institute
cg.contributor.donorGeorge Washington University
cg.contributor.donorUnited States Agency for International Development
cg.contributor.initiativeNational Policies and Strategies
cg.coverage.countryIndia
cg.coverage.regionAsia
cg.coverage.regionSouthern Asia
cg.coverage.subregionBihar
cg.creator.identifierAvinash Kishore: 0000-0003-4625-4922
cg.creator.identifierPatrick S Ward: 0000-0001-8793-1200
cg.howPublishedFormally Published
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12513
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA)
cg.identifier.publicationRankA
cg.isijournalISI Journal
cg.issn1467-8276
cg.journalAmerican Journal of Agricultural Economics
cg.reviewStatusPeer Review
cg.subject.actionAreaSystems Transformation
cg.subject.impactAreaNutrition, health and food security
dc.contributor.authorGars, Jared
dc.contributor.authorFishman, Ram
dc.contributor.authorKishore, Avinash
dc.contributor.authorRothler, Yoav
dc.contributor.authorWard, Patrick S.
dc.date.accessioned2025-02-11T17:55:30Z
dc.date.available2025-02-11T17:55:30Z
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/172962
dc.titleConfidence and information usage: Evidence from soil testing in India
dcterms.abstractInformational barriers are often considered to be a major constraint to the adoption of improved farming practices, inputs, and technologies by smallholder farmers. In the Indian context, it is widely believed that farmers misapply chemical fertilizers because they lack scientific information on soil conditions and corresponding fertilizer recommendations, thus resulting in imbalanced and potentially detrimental fertilizer application. Policymakers are frequently interested in providing farmers with various streams of information to overcome these informational barriers to optimize farming activities. However, such informational interventions frequently fail either because generic recommendations may be ill-suited for decision makers in highly heterogeneous agricultural environments or because farmers' beliefs may be so entrenched as to make them unresponsive to new information. We implemented a field experiment in Bihar, India to test whether plot-specific fertilizer recommendations affect farmers' fertilizer use. We find little evidence for sizable impacts on fertilizer use in general, though impacts are more apparent for low cost or costless recommendations such as increasing the use of highly subsidized fertilizers or shifting the timing of application. Despite modest evidence of such effects, even those fall short of their potential magnitude. We show that treated farmers who are less confident in their subjective beliefs about optimal fertilizer application rates (i.e., with more disperse priors) are more responsive to the recommendations and have a higher ex ante willingness to pay for soil testing. These results suggest that heterogeneity in beliefs may constrain the overall effectiveness of information provision, even when the information is tailored to individual farms. JEL Classification: D83, O13
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
dcterms.audienceScientists
dcterms.available2025-01-23
dcterms.bibliographicCitationGars, Jared; Fishman, Ram; Kishore, Avinash; Rothler, Yoav; and Ward, Patrick S. Confidence and information usage: Evidence from soil testing in India. American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Article in press. First published online January 23, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12513
dcterms.extent32 p.
dcterms.issued2025
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-4.0
dcterms.publisherWiley
dcterms.relationhttps://www.theigc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Fishman-et-al-Policy-Brief-2019.pdf
dcterms.relationhttps://purl.umn.edu/235705
dcterms.relationhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/146418
dcterms.subjectfertilizers
dcterms.subjectsoil analysis
dcterms.subjectsmallholders
dcterms.typeJournal Article

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