Knowledge Sharing and Other Decision Factors Influencing Adoption of Aquaculture in Indonesia

This paper examines the factors that influenced adoption of Floating Net aquaculture (FNA) utilizing the reservoir water by farmers who were resettled as a result of a dam constructed in Indonesia. Data from 400 households were analyzed and it was found that the main reason households adopted FNA was that they observed their friends', family's or neighbour's success with FNA. The main reason households did not adopt FNA was the difficulty in financing the initial capital cost. Additionally, based on further examination of information collected from 400 households as well as group interviews, tests were made to find whether the adoption factor changed with the timing of adoption. ‘Learning from others’ seems to be the most important factor during the earlier years but not in the later years of the adoption period. These findings provide important lessons for future policy in managing similar water resource development projects and this paper offers some policy recommendations.