@article{Hoffman:276022,
      recid = {276022},
      author = {Hoffman, V.},
      title = {Market incentives for technology adoption: Experimental  evidence from Kenyan maize farmers},
      address = {2018-07},
      number = {2058-2018-5330},
      pages = {27},
      year = {2018},
      abstract = {When aspects of quality are unobservable in the market,  returns to quality will be low and producers will lack  incentives to invest in quality. In the case of food  safety, this can have significant implications for health,  as with the example of aflatoxin, a toxin produced by a  fungus commonly found on maize and groundnut. We show that  Kenyan farmers who produce maize for sale are less likely  to undertake postharvest practices that increase the  unobservable quality of aflatoxin safety, as compared to  farmers who produce maize only for their own family’s  consumption. Employing randomized discount vouchers, we  find that willingness to pay for a new post-harvest  technology to prevent aflatoxin contamination in maize is  significantly lower among market producers than subsistence  farmers. However, we find that take-up of the technology  among market producers is increased by an opportunity to  sell aflatoxin-safe maize at a premium a few months after  harvest. This suggests that testing-based market incentives  could address the underinvestment in unobservable quality  in agriculture. However, widespread testing, if not  accompanied by technologies to significantly reduce  aflatoxin prevalence, could result in increased consumption  of aflatoxin-contaminated maize by the poorest members of  society.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/276022},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.276022},
}