Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
For example, consider the lessons of California's response to severe drought in
1988-1992. One major lesson was that water storage matters. Water storage facili-
ties enabled California to survive the three early years of the drought with minimal
impact or changes to cropping practices and then to survive the later years with
only moderate impact. Another important lesson was the importance of being able
to make multiple responses to reduced water supply. During the California drought,
water deficit was addressed primarily through three different responses: One-third
of the deficit was made up from groundwater pumping; another third of the deficit
was accomodated by letting land lie fallow; and the remaining one-third of the
deficit was compensated for by conservation measures, including the adoption of
high-efficiency irrigation technologies such as drip irrigation. Indeed, more effi-
cient technologies made a real difference in conservation. By 1992, at the end of
the drought, more than 50 % of the tree crops in California used drip irrigation and
more than 40 % of the cotton and alfalfa in major growing areas used sprinkler
irrigation. So, similar impacts could be expected for adoption of drought tolerant
varieties.
The situation is somewhat different for crops resistant to non-transient stresses
embodied in soil, such as salinity, pH, or metals. In such cases, the benefits will be
observable as long as the soil problem persists. Side-by-side demonstration plots
in affected regions may be enough to encourage many farmers to adopt. However,
for those traits that confer tolerance to transient stressors, such as drought or freez-
ing, an important implication that follows from this reasoning is that adoption to a
level that takes full advantage of the social benefits of the technology, may require
subsidies and public action.
2.3.5   Perceptions Are More Important than Reality
The fifth factor that influences adoption decisions is the general perceptions of a
technology across society. How do various stakeholders, including the general pub-
lic, perceive the new technology? This depends greatly upon the nature of the tech-
nology, and how it affects major social concerns such as the environment, health,
and poverty.
In the field of marketing, this phenomenon is called reputation building, and
it has to do both with the effects of informal interpersonal sharing of information
about a new technology as well as broad coverage and commentary about the tech-
nology in the media, amongst activists, and throughout the policy community. Rep-
utation building is often the initial process by which potential adopters are informed
about and have their first impressions of a new technology. But it is also the main
avenue by which members of the public form their (often simplistic) opinions about
the acceptability or desirability of a new technology (Brossard et al. 2007 ). Reputa-
tion thus can weigh heavily upon the disposition of policy-makers and regulators to-
wards a new technology (Graff et al. 2009 ). It can thus influence the extent to which
the technology is approved and becomes available to farmers to grow. It can also
influence farmers' interest in adopting the technology if there are concerns about
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