Adoptions of improved technologies and production practices are important drivers of agricultural development in low-income countries like Nepal. Adopting a broad class of such technologies and practices is often critical for meeting the multifaceted goals of efficiency, profitability, environmental sustainability, and climate resilience. This study aims to address the knowledge gaps that still exist concerning what determines the adoption of improved technologies and production practices, the factors affecting their diffusion, the impact of interventions on productivity and crops grown, and the variability of impact within a particular country context. In this paper we address these questions using data collected as part of the USAID-led Knowledge-Based Integrated Sustainable Agriculture in Nepal (KISAN) project. We adopted a multistage sampling technique and surveyed 988 beneficiary households and 997 non-beneficiary households in KISAN intervention districts and non-intervention districts. Our findings suggest that, in Nepal, adoption of improved technologies and practices is significantly increased by improved access to markets, private sector involvement in selling improved seeds and disseminating information, membership in progressive farmers groups and cooperative societies, participation in agricultural training and farm visits, provision of subsidies for seeds, and access to credit. We also found the probability of the adoption of improved practices to be affected by farmers’ sources of information; for instance, the adoption of improved practices was increased when farmers obtained information from informal sources, cooperatives/farmers organizations, and public and private extension programs. The effects of KISAN projects vary significantly across the different crops grown, based on the evaluation models that address self-selection of both project participation and crop choices. These implications may also apply to other parts of the world facing similar challenges as Nepal, where limited market access, insufficient knowledge and resource capacity of farmers constrain their adoption of improved technologies and practices in agriculture.

中文翻译：

---

农业改良技术和生产实践的采用和传播：来自尼泊尔捐助者主导的干预措施的见解

采用改进的技术和生产方法是尼泊尔等低收入国家农业发展的重要推动力。采用广泛的此类技术和实践对于实现效率、盈利能力、环境可持续性和气候适应力等多方面目标通常至关重要。本研究旨在解决在决定采用改进技术和生产实践的因素、影响其传播的因素、干预措施对生产力和作物种植的影响以及特定国家背景下影响的可变性方面仍然存在的知识差距。在本文中，我们使用作为美国国际开发署领导的尼泊尔知识型综合可持续农业 (KISAN) 项目的一部分收集的数据来解决这些问题。我们采用多阶段抽样技术，对 KISAN 干预区和非干预区的 988 户受益家庭和 997 户非受益家庭进行了调查。我们的研究结果表明，在尼泊尔，通过改善市场准入、私营部门参与销售改良种子和传播信息、加入进步农民团体和合作社、参与农业培训和农场参观，改进技术和实践的采用显着增加、提供种子补贴和获得信贷。我们还发现，采用改良做法的可能性会受到农民信息来源的影响；例如，当农民从非正式来源获得信息时，改进做法的采用就会增加，合作社/农民组织，以及公共和私人推广计划。基于解决项目参与和作物选择的自我选择的评估模型，KISAN 项目的影响因种植的不同作物而显着不同。这些影响也可能适用于面临类似挑战的世界其他地区，如尼泊尔，那里的市场准入有限、农民的知识和资源能力不足，限制了他们采用改进的农业技术和做法。