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Using information on varietal adoption of important cereal crops from a large-scale survey in India, this paper investigates "how social networks influence technology adoption behaviour of farm households." Our key innovation is that unlike many other studies that consider village-level adoption rates as a proxy for social networks, we identify a farm household's peer group based on caste and sources of information within a region. In the context of rural India, such networks are more relevant because of the historical evolution of the caste system based on similarities in the socio-cultural and occupational characteristics of households that provide greater stability and cohesiveness to the networks. Our findings show that the social networks of modern crop varieties' adopters are stronger than those of their non-adopters. Further, it is found that the adoption of modern varieties is strongly influenced by social networks, but their influence varies across crops depending on the stage of varietal diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we seek to quantify the relative importance of various geographical and administrative factors affecting the diffusion process of modern crop varieties in India. Our study relies on a multilevel modeling approach and uses pan-Indian, household-level data on the adoption of different varieties of rice, wheat and maize. Findings indicate that household-level differences explain larger variation in the adoption of modern crop varieties, but the contextual effects of state actions also play an important role in the diffusion process. These contextual effects are larger for commercial crops than for subsistence crops. Although level-specific recommendations are beyond the scope of this paper, our findings imply a need for strengthening linkages between research and extension systems, and better coordination of programs and strategies across different geographical levels for dissemination of modern crop varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, the agricultural sector of Southeast Asia has experienced robust growth and undergone a structural transformation albeit differentially across the countries in the region. The main aims of this paper are to understand the process of transformation and sources of growth in agriculture in the broader context of economy-wide changes in domestic and international markets, and to suggest technological, institutional and policy measures for faster, efficient and sustainable growth. Our findings show faster growth in agriculture in comparatively low-income countries, with technological change, area expansion and diversification being the main drivers. On the other hand, agricultural growth in high-income countries has been relatively slow, and driven by price increases, mainly of the export-oriented commercial crops, such as oil-palm, rubber and coconut; and also, by area expansion. In view of the fixed supply of land and high volatility in global food prices, area and price driven growth is unlikely to sustain in the long-run. For efficient, sustainable and inclusive growth, the recourse has to be with exploiting potential of (i) existing and frontier technologies, by investing more in agricultural research and extension systems, and (ii) diversification of production portfolio towards higher-value food commodities by strengthening institutions that link farmers to remunerative markets; and investing in post-harvest infrastructure for food processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]