The farmer and the fates: Locus of control and investment in rainfed agriculture

Abstract

Vulnerable households, often the target for efforts to increase resilience, likely hold beliefs about their ability to control outcomes that make them less likely to invest in new technologies. Locus of control provides one way to elicit these beliefs and can help identify populations requiring additional support prior to widespread adoption of new technologies. This paper presents evidence from a large sample of maize-producing households in Mozambique and Tanzania. A more external locus of control is strongly associated with lower expected returns to improved maize varieties and a reduced probability of their adoption.