Improving access to new technologies: An experiment with Kenyan input sellers

Abstract

Abstract Agrodealers play a critical role in rural economies, selling essential inputs for agricultural production, stocking new products, and providing farmers with technical advice. However, uncertainty can discourage them from stocking newer, less familiar products, limiting the availability of innovative technologies and leading to market failures and low‐innovation equilibria. We provided Kenyan agrodealers with a 10% price discount on new, drought‐tolerant maize hybrids. The discount increased the likelihood that the agrodealer stocked the new hybrids and increased the share of the new hybrids in overall sales. In an information‐deprived environment, the discount encouraged dealers to gather more information about the seeds and increased agrodealers' sales effort.