Exposure to agricultural technologies and adoption: The West Africa agricultural productivity program in Ghana, Senegal and Mali

We estimate the effects of increased exposure to agricultural technologies on farmers' adoption and economic well-being in Ghana, Mali, and Senegal using post-implementation data collected in 2019. The program, known as the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP), aimed at improving agricultural productivity to enhance economic growth, food security and to reduce poverty and ran in two phases. We focus on the second phase of the program, which ran between 2012 and 2019. We use ex-ante matching at the village and household levels to select the estimation sample. We find that the treatment raised technology adoption by 0.32 percentage points and the adoption of improved seeds by 0.20 percentage points. The program also increased productivity and income of the treated households by 10% and 17% respectively, relative to the comparison households. There were no detectable effects on consumption and food security. We provide suggestive evidence indicating that the additional income may have been saved or invested. Taken together, these results suggest that multi-country agricultural programs can be effective at spurring economic transformation.