Memory constraints in adoption of productive technologies

Limited adoption of productive technologies is often identified as a key reason for lagging agricultural productivity in developing countries. We hypothesize that memory limitations play a crucial role in explaining these sub-optimal levels of technology adoption. We test this hypothesis in the context of cattle disease prevention and management among smallholder farmers in east Africa. If farmers under-remember cattle health events, this will reduce their incentive to invest in preventive technologies. We implemented a field experiment in western Kenya to study if relieving memory constraints increases demand for a livestock disease prevention technology. We trained and incentivized study participants to keep simple written records of cattle disease events, health expenditures, and milk production outcomes for a period of three months. We then provided a paper template to help summarize the information in the record books. We find this intervention nearly doubled demand for the preventive technology, and evidence suggests that the record-keeping increased recall of disease events. This paper provides evidence that memory may serve as a barrier to technology adoption and our intervention can serve as a low-cost way of increasing take-up of productive technologies.