Impact of Improved Maize Technology Package on Maize Yield Growth of Major Maize Growing Regions of Ethiopia

Fitsum Daniel

doi:10.7176/isde/12-1-01

Abstract

This study examines the differential impact of adoption of improved maize technology package (including improved maize varieties, fertilizer of any kind as well as row planting) on maize yield growth using 645 sample farm households in three major maize growing administrative regions of Ethiopia. Propensity score matching (PSM) technique was employed since it is an increasingly utilized standard approach for evaluating impacts using observational data. It is found that adoption of improved maize technology package doesn't have the desired positive and significant impact on yield growth in all of the administrative regions considered. Moreover, the magnitude of the impact greatly varies among regions. Thus, the study recommends that the agricultural research and extension system of the country should further consider the various differences that exist among different regions and areas of the country so as to generate and disseminate appropriate and suitable improved agricultural technologies and information. Keywords: Impact, Maize, Improved Technology Package, Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/ISDE/12-1-01 Publication date: January 31 st 2021

Highlights

According to world development report 2008 of The World Bank, in the agriculture-based countries which include most of Sub-Saharan Africa like Ethiopia, agriculture is a major source of growth, accounting for 32 percent of GDP growth on average and most (70 percent) of the poor are in rural areas
With a wider range of institutional options available, more evaluation is needed of what works well in what contexts (World Bank, 2007). In response to this need, the objective of this study is to identify the impact of adoption of improved maize technology package on maize yield growth in each of the three administrative regions of Ethiopia which are known to be the major maize producing regions in the country
This study is undertaken to shed-light on the differential impact of adoption of improved maize technology package on maize yield growth among various major maize producing administrative regions of Ethiopia using the propensity score matching technique which is a robust impact evaluation technique that identifies the impact which can be attributed to the adoption of improved maize technology package

Summary

Introduction

According to world development report 2008 of The World Bank, in the agriculture-based countries which include most of Sub-Saharan Africa like Ethiopia, agriculture is a major source of growth, accounting for 32 percent of GDP growth on average and most (70 percent) of the poor are in rural areas. Agriculture is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy and it determines the growth of all other sectors and the whole national economy (Welteji, 2018). In many of the agriculture-based countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, food remains imperfectly tradable because of high transaction costs and the prevalence of staple foods that are only lightly traded, such as roots and tubers and local cereals. Many of these countries must largely feed themselves. Agricultural productivity determines the price of food, which in turn determines wage costs and competitiveness of the tradable sectors. Productivity of food staples is key to growth (World Bank, 2007)

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