Institutions and the Adoption of Technologies: Bench Terraces in Rwanda

Local institutions shape the adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) technologies. Various techniques for SWC are used once adopted by farmers such as bench terraces and hedges. Some farmers are reluctant for the adoption to a number of factors including institutions in their diverse forms. The paper specifies ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ social capitals, among other factors, to estimate their impacts on adoption of bench and progressive terraces in rural Rwanda- dominant forms of SWC in the history of land conservation in Rwanda. Data used for this study were collected among 301 households who also provided information on 907 plots located in the Northern and Southern Provinces in Rwanda. Sample households were selected using a stratified random sampling procedure. The results substantiate that some forms of social capital, i.e. trust and co-operation in collective labour, matter in the adoption process of bench terraces in Rwanda. These findings postulate that soil and water conservation is driven by local institutions. Unlike earlier work on the adoption of SWC measures, tenure security does not explain the adoption of bench and progressive terraces in rural Rwanda. Findings show also that bench terraces were constructed on plots with either gentle or steeper slopes. Farmers need more training before they embark upon the terracing process to ensure technical efficiency and sustainability of established terraces. Finally, the above findings confirm the hypothesis that local institutions play an important role in the adoption of bench terraces in rural Rwanda. Therefore, the results of this study help to guide both research into and policy on how local institutions can play better roles and the extent to which the institutions can substitute direct interventions by NGOs and policy-makers in soil and water conservation in Rwanda.