UTILIZATION, PROFITABILITY, AND THE ADOPTION OF ANIMAL DRAFT POWER IN WEST-AFRICA

Farmers in West Africa’s semi-arid tropics have been slow to adopt animal draft power to replace manual cultivation, defying the logic of conventional choice-of-technique analyses. This paper demonstrates that farmers can profitably adopt animal draft power when household characteristics and exogenous factors permit high utilization of animals and equipment. Empirical analysis of farm-level data indicates that low utilization is the key cause of low returns, and that a long learning period precedes achieving high utilization and benefits. Linear programming models are used to establish the importance of family size, access to land, and appropriate implements in achieving profitable adoption. © 1990 American Agricultural Economics Association.