This seminar presents a paper that examines whether psycho-social training can increase female smallholders' adoption of improved seeds in Ethiopia. 

The paper will be presented by the CoRE IPD’s co-lead, Prof. Robert Lensink from the University of Groningen. He co-authored the paper with Temesegn Belissa, Kritika Saxena, and Abdeta Wakoya.

Low agricultural productivity in Africa is partly due to limited use of modern inputs, often driven by psychological barriers, especially for women. The researchers conducted a randomised control trial with 1,200 female farmers, providing three days of training on self-esteem, goal-setting, trust, and leadership. 

Following the training, a Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auction was used to measure willingness to pay for quality protein maize seeds. Results show that the training significantly raised willingness to pay, with treated farmers bidding 15.83 Birr more and being 20% more likely to collect seeds. 

These findings highlight the role of internal constraints in technology adoption and demonstrate that addressing psychological barriers can enhance female smallholder’s agricultural productivity. The study contributes to the literature on gender, agriculture, and the role of aspirations and agency in development.

About the presenter:

Prof Robert Lensink

Robert Lensink is a development economist, with specific research interests covering  Gender Studies, Impact Analyses, Financial inclusion, and Rural Development. A substantial part of his work focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa. He is Professor of Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), University of Groningen (UG), and a “Professor Extraordinary” at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.  He is currently the Vice-Dean Research at FEB, UG. Robert has a wide international network. He is External Research Fellow of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). (University of London), Associate Researcher at the Centre for European Research in Microfinance (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Resource Person for the African Economic Research Consortium, Full Member of the European Development Research Network, and a Member of the steering committee of Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek NWO/WOTRO. Robert has published more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Economics journals like The American Economic Review; The Economic Journal; and the Journal of Public Economics; Psychology Journals, like the British Journal of Social Psychology and Frontiers of Psychology, and multidisciplinary journals like World Development. He has authored five books, edited for books, and published more than 35 book chapters.

More about Robert Lensink here