查看文章

This paper evaluates the determinants and impact of adopting the metal silo—a postharvest storage technology for staple grains—which was disseminated by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) from 1983 to 2003 in four Central American countries. The aim of the SDC program was to diminish smallholder farmers’ postharvest losses by facilitating the manufacture and dissemination of metal silos and thereby to improve regional food security. Our empirical analysis is based on a unique data set obtained from a survey of 1,600 households from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. We employed a double-hurdle model to identify factors that contributed to the adoption of metal silos and used Tobit and standard regression models to assess the impact of adopting the silos on food security and well-being of households. Our results show that both the household demand for …