Taking stock of agroforestry adoption studies

In light of the large number of empirical studies of agroforestry adoption published during the last decade, we believe it is time to take stock and identify general determinants of agroforestry adoption. In reviewing 120 articles on adoption of agricultural and forestry technology by small holders, we find five categories of factors that explain technology adoption within an economic framework: preferences, resource endowments, market incentives, biophysical factors, and risk and uncertainty. By selecting only empirical analyses that focus on agroforestry and related investments, we narrow our list down to 32 studies primarily from tropical areas. We apply vote-counting based meta-analysis to these studies and evaluate the inclusion and significance of the five adoption factors. Our analysis shows that preferences and resource endowments are the factors most often included in studies. However, adoption behavior is most likely to be significantly influenced by risk, biophysical, and resource factors. In our conclusion, we discuss specific recommendations for the next generation of adoption studies and meta-analyses that include considering a fuller menu of variables, reporting key statistics and marginal probabilities, and conducting weighted meta-regressions.

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