Adoption of New Practices in Latin American Agriculture: Livestock Technologies and Systems
介绍了四篇关于拉丁美洲农民采纳畜牧业新技术和系统的研究，填补了现有文献中关于该地区畜牧业实践采纳的空白，并展示了多种研究方法。
This issue of the Journal of Agricultural Economics includes a special section with four articles about farmer adoption of new livestock production technologies and systems in Latin America. These papers complement the large existing research literature on technology adoption in agriculture (as reviewed, for example, by Dessart et al. 2019; Foguesatto et al. 2020; Ruzzante et al. 2021; Möhring et al. 2024) and contribute to filling gaps in that literature. One of those gaps is research on practice adoption in Latin American agriculture in general. Existing research has primarily focused on agriculture in high-income countries in Europe, North America and Australasia (Pannell et al. 2006; Knowler and Bradshaw 2007; Dessart et al. 2019) or low-income countries of Africa and Asia (Kafle 2010; Yokamo 2020; Ruzzante et al. 2021). On a number of dimensions, agriculture in the three countries studied here, Uruguay, Columbia and Mexico, sits in between the characteristics of agriculture in high-income and low-income countries (e.g., yields, mechanisation, farm size, labour use), although there is overlap. Another area of relative neglect is research on the adoption of technologies and systems for livestock production. The great majority of existing studies focus on crop-production practices, including practices for increasing productivity and sustainability. The four papers included here address a wide variety of livestock production practices whose adoption has not previously been widely studied. They include controlled mating, artificial insemination, ovarian activity diagnosis, early weaning, various grazing strategies, pasture management, pasture improvement, adjustments to stocking rates, defined breeding periods, pregnancy diagnostics, post-calving nutrition, and adjusting the age of first pregnancy. Most studies of practice adoption in agriculture have analysed cross-sectional data at a point in time part-way through the adoption process. Most have used regression techniques to identify independent variables that are correlated with adoption, ex post. In most cases, causality is assumed, but the research methods do not allow it to be tested. The four papers presented here demonstrate that a wider range of approaches to studying adoption is possible and can be fruitful. Guerrero et al. (2026) conduct a Discrete Choice Experiment with 274 Uruguayan cattle producers to understand their stated preferences for adopting four different packages of sustainable livestock management practices, as well as adoption of silvo-pastoral systems (combining trees with pasture and livestock on the same land). The approach contributes to prediction of future adoption, rather than explaining past adoption. Their results indicate that the surveyed farmers hold favourable views of the presented livestock management practices and would likely adopt them if their circumstances allowed. On the other hand, they would require compensation to adopt the silvo-cultural practices. Most adoption studies treat adoption as a binary variable—adoption either occurs or it does not. For some farming practices, this neglects the fact that the decision made by a farmer is continuous. For example, a new grazing practice may be implemented in some proportion of a herd, ranging from 0% to 100%. Basurto-Hernández et al. (2026) analyse a very large sample obtained from agricultural censuses in Mexico (over 860,000 data points) to explain the allocation of grazing land across four types of grazing practice, ranging from less to more productive and sustainable. The results from their fractional multinomial logit model indicate that institutional factors, including insurance, credit, and extension services, have the largest influences on farmers' decisions to switch their livestock to more sustainable grazing systems. Relatively few studies evaluate the effectiveness of particular extension campaigns in enhancing practice adoption in agriculture (Marsh et al. (2000) is a relatively rare example) or the effect of adoption on outcomes such as productivity. Aguirre et al. (2026) examine a particular program in Uruguay (the Sustainable Family Production Program) that supports small and medium-sized cattle farmers to encourage their adoption of four productivity-enhancing and climate-adaptive technologies related to animal reproduction. Their analysis involves application of a Regression Discontinuity Design across two funding phases of the program. They found that the program positively influenced the adoption of some practices but not all of them. Interestingly, they were unable to detect any statistically significant increase in productivity or decrease in greenhouse gas emissions as a result of the successful adoption, highlighting the importance of looking beyond adoption itself when evaluating a program. Finally, Flórez-Díaz et al. (2026) employ the most frequently used approach to studying practice adoption in agriculture: an econometric analysis of cross-sectional data to identify the determinants of adoption. A feature of this study is the focus on a post-conflict zone in Colombia, with implications for land tenure and the effectiveness of institutional support structures. Consistent with previous studies, their analysis indicates that secure land tenure increases adoption of sustainable pasture management. However, secure tenure alone is not a sufficient condition for adoption. Also important is the production gain that can be achieved as a result of adoption. Farmers facing poor production levels, due to high aluminium levels in the soil affecting pasture production, were less likely to adopt. Without addressing this issue, via treatments to reduce soil acidity, the prospects for adoption of improved pasture management are limited. This highlights the importance of a finding by Montes De Oca Munguia and Llewellyn (2020) who reviewed a sample of existing adoption studies and found that many neglect the on-farm performance of the new practice (relative to the practice it replaces) when attempting to explain its adoption or non-adoption. I have highlighted a sample of findings from the four studies. There is much more to learn from detailed readings. It is hoped that these studies will inspire comparable research in other countries of Latin America, and the use of these research techniques globally. Open access publishing facilitated by The University of Western Australia, as part of the Wiley - The University of Western Australia agreement via the Council of Australasian University Librarians. The author declares no conflicts of interest. Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.