Impact assessment of adopting improved rice variety on farm household welfare in Ethiopia

Abstract

This article presents the evaluation of the impact of the adoption of improved rice varieties on yield, commercialization, multidimensional poverty, and subjective poverty using data collected from 594 rice producing smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. We adopted an endogenous switching regression model complemented with a propensity score matching methodology to test robustness and reduced selection bias restricting from both observed and unobserved characteristics. The analysis results are consistent across models, indicating that adoption of improved rice varieties has a robust and positive impact on rice yield, and commercialization. Controlling the variations in household characteristics, the average effect of improved rice varieties adoption on productivity was 0.564 t/ha. Similarly, the econometric result showed that improved rice variety adoption decreased multidimensional poverty and subjective poverty by 1.7% and 12.4%, respectively. The government should work with development partners and NGOs to ease the accessibility and expansion of improved rice varieties in rice producing areas of the country. Therefore, policymakers and development organizations should consider improved rice variety adoption as the main strategy to increase productivity, commercialization, and reduce poverty of the rice farm households. • The study evaluates the impact of improved rice varieties on smallholder farmers' welfare. • The study employed an endogenous switching regression model to analyze data collected from the major rice-producing area of Ethiopia. • Factors influencing the adoption of improved rice varieties identified. • Improved rice variety adoption leads to significant yield and commercialization gains. • Improved rice variety adoption have significant multidimensional poverty and subjective poverty-reducing impacts.