Farmers' Behavior Towards New Technology: The Senegalese Case

The adoption of new technology in developing countries is an important issue today. Several studies have been undertaken to discover ways of encouraging the development and the adoption of new technologies. In Senegal two different approaches to the transfer of technology to farmers are noticeable: the adapted technology approach and the intermediate technology approach. Of these, the intermediate technology approach embodied in oxen traction is the predominant approach to technology transfer in Senegal. This paper analyzes the behavior of Senegalese farmers towards this dominant kind of technology transfer in Thies Region, one of the old peanut basin regions of Senegal. Capital budgets for two oxen and two equipment options are prepared. Annualized benefit cost ratios are then computed to compare the prevailing labor intensive technology to the recommended and actual practices regarding equipment and feeding/marketing regimes for the oxen. The results of this analysis show that under prevailing farm conditions and price policies, the use of labor intensive technology is more profitable than the use of the two kinds of intermediate technologies embodied in oxen traction in Thies. The analysis points to the necessity of carefully considering the internal family wage system at the farm household level when dealing with changes in farming technology in developing countries. It further suggests that food grains which are surplus to household requirements have far greater value as a wage good than as marketed outputs.