Assessing Actual and Potential Adoption Rates and Determinants of Good Agricultural practices: Evidence from the cashew nut production in Côte d'Ivoire

Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) have been widely promoted to improve productivity, sustainability, and quality in Côte d'Ivoire's cashew sector. However, the determinants and extent of adoption of GAPs among farmers remain poorly understood to date. This study estimates the actual and potential adoption rates of key GAPs and analyzes the socio-economic, institutional, and behavioral factors influencing farmers' uptake. Using survey data from 844 cashew producers and employing Probit and Average Treatment Effect (ATE) models, we find that while awareness of GAPs is relatively high, there are persistent gaps between knowledge and practice. Gender, literacy, training, and farmers' perceptions emerge as strong predictors of adoption, particularly for practices such as pruning and thinning. Conversely, farm-level constraints, such as labor availability and plot distance, hinder the uptake of certain GAPs. The ATE analysis reveals that exposure to GAPs substantially increases adoption but also uncovers an "awareness gap" and positive selection bias, suggesting that current extension efforts disproportionately benefit better-resourced farmers. We propose policy recommendations, including tailored extension strategies, gender-sensitive training, bundled input support, and diversified dissemination channels, to address heterogeneous adoption barriers and equity concerns. These findings contribute to the literature on agricultural innovation and offer insights into designing more effective and inclusive GAPs promotion programs in Côte d'Ivoire and similar contexts.