Operationalizing ‘adoption’ in the
Africa RISING Program
Haroon Sseguya
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
Africa RISING Program Learning Event
5 – 8 February 2019
Lilongwe, Malawi

Background
Why adoption?
Central to efforts on measurement of RoI in
agricultural research and development
interventions.
Careful operationalization and measurement
critical
 E.g.: What is a technology/innovation?
 Who is an adopter (intensity, frequency,
time period)?
 Any adaptation, disadoption, or spillovers?
Why?

Technology, innovation, adoption
o Technology: an intervention, product or approach that has been
tried or tested elsewhere and can be built upon and/or adapted
o Innovation: a product of the use of a technology in such a way that
it yields socio- or economic benefit(s) to different stakeholders
 Adoption: a decision by an individual to use SI technologies/innovations
arising from research as an option for improved results over time in such a
way that any of the following SI dimensions (productivity, economic,
environmental, human conditions, and social) are positively affected
without compromising the other dimensions.

Adoption dynamics
Innovation adoption phase Categorisation of beneficiaries
Awareness/Exposure 1. Unaware
2. Unfamiliar
Interest/Evaluation 1. Interested
2. Not interested (non-adopter)
Trial 1. Genuine user
2. Pseudo user
Adoption/ dis-adoption 1. Modified adopter or adapter
2. Semi-adopter
3. Total adopter
4. Pseudo-adopter
5. Disadopter

Adoption dynamics
Do not forget the spillovers… in which category do they fall?
Innovationadoptionphase Categorisationof beneficiaries
Awareness/ Exposure 1. Unaware
2. Unfamiliar
Interest/ Evaluation 3. Interested
4. Not interested (non-adopter)
Trial 5. Genuine user
6. Pseudo user
Adoption/ dis-adoption 7. Modified adopter or adapter
8. Semi-adopter
9. Total adopter
10. Pseudo-adopter
11. Disadopter

Reach Not-reached
1. Our ‘reach’ has
two/three categories
of actors:
i. Non-adopters
ii. Adopters
iii. Users (those ‘trying’
and ‘pseudo’ adopters
(element of time needed
to separate ii and iii)
2. Among those we have
not (directly) reached
are ‘spillovers’
Non-
users
Context of Africa RISING Program: Reach, Use,
Adoption

Adoption in Africa RISING- Operationalization
 A decision by an individual to use SI
technologies/innovations arising from
research as an option for improved
results over time in such a way that any
of the following SI dimensions
(productivity, economic,
environmental, human conditions, and
social) are positively affected without
compromising the other dimensions.

Implications for scaling
Factor Thematicarea
1. Technology Characteristics of the technology
(e.g. relative advantage,
compatibility with the socio-agro-
ecological system, trialability,
observability, complexity)
2. User Socio-economic characteristics
(incl demographics and attitude
of members to the
technology/innovation)

Factor Thematicarea
3. Context 1. Capacity of the organization implementing or
promoting the technology or innovation
2. Attributes of the diffusion strategy used
3. Political and institutional framework of the
country/region/district
4. Political and institutional framework of the
village/watershed
5. Input and output markets at
village/watershed/district/region/country level
Implications for scaling

Useful literature
1. Brown, B., Nuberg, I. and Llewellyn, R. (2017). Stepwise frameworks for
understanding the utilisation of conservation agriculture in Africa.
Agricultural Systems, 153: 11-22.
2. Farrow, A., Ronner, E., Brand, G.J.V, Boahen, S.K., Leornardo, W., Wolde-
Meskel, E., Adjei-Nsiah, S. et al (2016). From best fit technologies to best fit
scaling: incorporating and evaluating factors affecting the adoption of grain
legumes in sub-Saharan Africa. Experimental Agriculture, 1–26.
3. Glover, D., Sumberg, J. and Anderson, A.J. (2016). The adoption problem;
or why we still understand so little about technological change in African
agriculture. Outlook on Agriculture, 45(1): 3–6. doi: 10.5367/oa.2016.0235.
4. Rogers, E.M. 2003 Diffusion of Innovations. New York: The Free Press.

Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
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