Abstract
Peer effects are increasingly important in agricultural development through social learning and technology adoption among smallholder farmers in rural communities. In sub-Saharan Africa, peer effects can enhance rural development by improving the performance of rural extension workers, and thereby facilitate the diffusion of innovations among smallholder farmers. Yet, analyses of peer effects in the performance of extension agents remain limited. We respond to this knowledge gap by estimating peer effects in the performance of community knowledge workers (CKWs) who utilize smartphones to provide extension services in rural Uganda. We apply spatial econometric analysis to administrative data on the monthly performance of 650 CKWs across 13 Ugandan districts in 2011 (performance being measured by the amount of information provided in response to farmers’ requests). We found positive and statistically significant effects of the performance of the peers of CKWs on their respective performance by 49%. The result suggests that policy makers and development practitioners can utilize peer effects among rural extension agents like CKWs to improve the delivery of agricultural extension and advisory services and thereby, enhance agricultural growth and rural development in Uganda and similar contexts elsewhere.
•Performance of agricultural extension systems remain weak in sub-Saharan Africa.•Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs) provide rural extension services in Uganda.•We use spatial econometric techniques to analyzed peer effects in CKW performance.•Peer effects account for 49% of CKW performance in Uganda.•Policymakers can use peer effects among extension workers to spur rural development.
