Using a whole-farm modelling approach to assess prospective technologies under uncertainty

New technologies may be adopted by farmers if they fit farmers' resource endowments, objectives and goals, and attitudes towards risk. In this paper, the role of whole-farm modelling in technology evaluation is discussed. An assessment of prospective technology options for wheat and sugar beet in a study region in Iran is presented. Data on new technologies were collected from farmers of Fars province, staff of the Shiraz Branch of the Agricultural Research Centre, the Regional Branch of the Extension Organization, and from the Shiraz University's Research Centre. An extension of utility efficient programming to non-linear discrete stochastic programming, was adopted to evaluate prospective technology options. Results of the study demonstrated the merits of the technique, and it was found that farmers' total net revenue would increase considerably if adoption was to occur.