The adoption problem; or why we still understand so little about technological change in African agriculture

The notion of adoption is central to efforts to measure technological
change in African agriculture, and plays an important role in the evaluation of
return on investment in agricultural research and technology development.
However, the adoption concept, as it is commonly used in both the literature and
development research practice, is seriously flawed and leads to inaccurate and
misleading conclusions. The authors outline a design specification for a replacement
concept that would provide a better basis for robust empirical research on the
economic, social and environmental impacts of investment in agricultural
technology development and promotion. They propose that this new concept can
contribute to a better and more nuanced understanding of the impacts of technology
development interventions.