Research and Development Spillover, Irrigation Water Use and Agricultural Production in Pakistan

Abstract

This research entails investigation of the impacts of Research and Development (R&D) spillover and irrigation water use efficiency on agricultural productivity in Pakistan. Influenced through the importance of R&D spillovers in innovation, water scarcity, irrigation technology, internal and external R&D shocks, human capital, agriculture employment and land were analyzed in the agricultural productivity. Considered the research objectives the annual timeseries data is collected for the period of 1973 to 2020 from different sources. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model is applied to investigate the contribution of knowledge spillover and water resources efficiency for agricultural production in Pakistan. The results suggest the presence of positive and significant impact of foreign and domestic R&D spillovers on agriculture productivity of Pakistan. Further, the study found presence of larger positive externalities associated with external R&D spillovers in agriculture productivity. The estimates highlight that efficient utilization of water technology performs positive role in agriculture productivity in Pakistan. The results of both human capital and interactive term have negative sign and are significant which has clearly indicated that agriculture labor has less absorptive ability of foreign knowledge spillover. From the estimated results, it is recommended that government needs to focus on availability and accessibility of advance technology for farmers through increased outreach and extension services to educate the farmers and accelerate adoption of innovation in agriculture. Further, it is recommended that the Pakistani government must focus on the exploration of alternative irrigation technology in agriculture production for efficient use of water to increase agriculture productivity. Through the adoption of advanced irrigation techniques, the farmers can conserve the irrigated water, enhance water use efficiency in food production and overcome climatic challenges for agriculture production as well as food insecurity issues in Pakistan.