From Saddles to Harrows: Agricultural Technology Adoption during the Russian Colonization in Kazakhstan

Technology adoption in agriculture is one of the key factors of change in rural areas of developing countries. Large-scale in-migration by groups using a more advanced production technology often triggers such change in autochthone populations. We analyse the determinants of adoption of new agricultural technology by nomadic pastoralists using unique micro-level data from a historical episode of massive Russian peasant in-migration into Kazakhstan at the turn of the 20th century. We find that distance to Russian settlers is a key determinant of technology adoption, even after controlling for socio-economic and environmental characteristics. This effect is stronger for wealthier and less mobile Kazakh families with pasture land more suitable for agriculture. The adoption of new technology follows a heterogeneous pattern within the autochthone population, with important implications for the evolution of inequality.