Abstract
Abstract Improved seed is one of the crucial ingredients for promoting agricultural productivity, farmers’ livelihood, and global food security. The present study uses an endogenous treatment regression model (ETRM) to evaluate the impacts of improved seed maize technology (ISMT) adoption on technical efficiency and productivity using data from maize farmers in northern Ghana. The findings show that ISMT adoption impacts positively on technical efficiency. Adoption of ISMT enhanced technical efficiency by 16.1% and increased maize productivity by 33.8%. The study recommends dissemination of improved maize seeds to farmers and other interventions such as provision of fertilizer to enhance farmers’ technical efficiency and productivity.
Highlights
Improved technology adoption is critical for agricultural productivity and livelihoods of small-scale farmers in developing countries
We find that adopters of improved seed maize technology (ISMT) had larger farms and used more labor and fertilizer in production compared to non-adopters
The adoption of ISMT is low among the smallholders which is of concern to policy-makers who seek to boost adoption of improved technologies by smallholders to enhance crop yields and farm income
Summary
Improved technology adoption is critical for agricultural productivity and livelihoods of small-scale farmers in developing countries. Studies on adoption of modern and high-yielding seeds in sub-Saharan Africa exist in the literature (Eriksson et al, 2018; Walker and Alwang, 2015; Alene et al, 2009; Krishna and Quarm, 2008). Some of the studies argue that adoption of improved seed varieties remains low among smallholder producers (Alene et al, 2009; Krishna and Quarm, 2008), and that even where improved seeds are perceived to be available, affordable, and profitable, most smallholder farmers find it difficult to invest in these technologies (Hoogendoorn et al, 2018). Growing body of literature on the adoption of agricultural technology has suggested the rethinking of the way improved seed technology is generated, designed and disseminated to farmers, while finding ways to improve demand for and uptake of improved seed technologies by the
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