Pacific Livelihoods Research Group

Publication – Disruptive Innovation in Agriculture

Publication: Disruptive Innovation in Agriculture: socio-cultural factors in technology adoption in the developing world. 

  1. Top left: Cocoa Pod Borer moth
  2. Top right: Burial pit for cocoa pods infested with Cocoa Pod Borer
  3. Middle right: The mottled colouring of a cocoa pod infested with Cocoa Pod Borer
  4. Bottom: Cocoa Pod Borer larva on the surface of a cocoa pod

In this paper, we present four case studies of technology adoption and rejection from different parts of the developing world. We explore how different socio-cultural and agro‐ecological contexts shape smallholders’ decisions relating to the adoption of new technologies. We illustrate how socio-cultural, institutional and environmental factors influence adoption and show the value of examining proposed innovations and technologies in terms of their capacity to undermine or strengthen indigenous socio-cultural values as a way of understanding potential points of resistance or pathways to adoption.

Full reference:

Curry, G.N., Nake, S., Koczberski, G., Oswald, M., Rafflegeau, S., Lummani, J., Peter, E. and Nailina, R. (2021). Disruptive innovation in agriculture: socio-cultural factors in technology adoption in the developing world. Rural Studies 88, 422-431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.07.022

  1. Left: A stone being used to remove the outer skin of coffee cherries – 6 hours to pulp a 60 kg bag of cherry
  2. Top right: A hand pulper being used to remove the outer skin of coffee cherries  – 30 minutes to pulp a 60 kg bag of cherry
  3. Bottom right: An ecopulper which removes the outer skin and mucilage in a single operation – 12 mins to pulp a 60 kg bag of cherry

Cocoassie yam (Dioscorea praehensilis) mounds in a cocoa smallholding in Ivory Coast. The yam vine is growing up the trunk of a shade tree.