Adoption of Drip Irrigation in Cotton: The Case of Kibbutz Cotton-Growers in Israel

The subject of technological innovations in agriculture has attracted considerable attention among development economists because new technologies offer opportunities to increase income substantially. Immediate and uniform adoption of agricultural innovations is quite rare. Some innovations have been well received while others have been adopted by only a very small group of farmers. The aim of this paper is to identify, estimate and explain the parameters which promote the adoption and speed the rate of diffusion of drip irrigation technology in cotton-growing. Using cross-section time-series regression models, the analysis was applied to a sample of 38 kibbutz cotton-growers in two regions of Israel. It was found that profitability is the major motive for adoption of drip irrigation in cotton by a profit-maximizer kibbutz farm. Additional significant explanatory variables which affect the rate of diffusion are detailed in the paper.