DISCUSSANT'S COMMENTS FOR AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING, SELECTED PAPERS SESSION SP-6R: "ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES"

These papers move beyond the questions of who adopts technologies to ask how preferences for characteristics (of maize in Mexico or cattle in Burkina Faso) affect adoption and how technical change differentially affects semi-subsistence farmers and how it affects productivity and yield variability. Papers include: Modeling Impacts of Soil Conservation on Productivity and Yield Variability: Evidence From a Heteroskedastic Switching Regression Gerald Shively, Purdue University. Selecting Genetic Traits for Cattle Improvement: Preservation of Disease Resistant Cattle in Africa Kouadio Tano, Merle Faminow, Mulumba Kamuanga, Brent Swallow. Variety Characteristics and the Land Allocation Decisions of Farmers in a Center of Maize Diversity Melinda Smale, Mauricio Bellon, and Alfonso Aguirre. The Distributional Impacts of Farm Policy in Semi-Subsistence Agriculture Garth Holloway, Ahmet Bayaner, Nermin Akyil.