Agricultural Technology Adoption for Food and Nutrition Security: Evidence from Ethiopia

Abstract

Using a unique panel data, we investigate whether the technologies that the farmers adopted three and five years ago have effects on food and nutrition security of the adopters. Secondly, we analyze the adoption decisions of a comprehensive of eight modern inputs and labor-intensive technologies including improved seed varieties, inorganic fertilizer, chemicals, organic fertilizer, extension service, irrigation, soil conservation and mechanism of planting seeds. Finally, we investigate the determinants of adoptions. The results reveal that the higher the number of technologies that the farmers adopted, the higher the likelihood of food and nutrition security, implying that farmers have to get a package of inputs to best benefit from the technologies. Most of the technologies have statistically significant effects on food and nutrition security individually as well. We also find complementarity between modern inputs and labor-intensive technologies, perhaps indicating that adoption of modern inputs induces farmers to adopt labor-intensive technologies. The results further reveal that farmers who adopt technologies once are more likely to adopt the technologies again, perhaps indicating that adoption of these technologies is profitable. Acknowledgement :