Adoption Of Drought-tolerant Maize Research Articles

Gender Differentials in the Adoption of Drought-Tolerant Maize Varieties among Farmers in the Northern Region of Ghana

This study examined gender differences in farmers’ adoption of drought-tolerant maize (DTM) varieties in northern region of Ghana. Specifically, it described the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers by gender; determined their rate of adoption of the DTM varieties; and analyzed the factors affecting the rate of adoption of the varieties. The study was conducted in the Northern region of Ghana. Simple random sampling technique was used to obtain data from 600 respondents, comprising 551 males and 49 females. Data were collected with the use of a survey questionnaire that contained questions on respondents’ socio-economic characteristics such as age, years of schooling, household size, farm size, access to credit, level of awareness and adoption of DTM varieties and extension contact, among others. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and probit regression model. The results for the entire respondents showed average values of 49.75 years for age, 10.8 for household size, with a significant difference (p<0.05) between male and female farmers for each of the variables. Average farm size of 3.38 ha, with a significant difference (p<0.01) between male and female farmers for the variables. The adoption rate of DTM was 13.3% in the entire sample with a significant difference (p<0.05) between male (13.4%) and female farmers (12.2%). The determinants of adoption of DTM varieties for both male and female farmers were age of the household head, education, source of seed, and level of awareness, specific to male farmers was educational status of the respondents while farm size was specific to female famers. It was concluded that policy strategies aimed at improving the uptake of DTM varieties must consider equality in male and female farmers’ access to resources such as credit, labour and land. Keywords: Gender, Drought-tolerant, Maize varieties, Adoption, Ghana. DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/11-20-04 Publication date: October 31 st 2021

The Current Status and Constraints of Drought-Tolerant Maize Adoption in Uganda

Agriculture is an economic backbone of many sub-Saharan African countries, including Uganda. However, the country is grappling with slow agricultural development and food insecurity. Concurrently, Uganda faces climatic challenges that likely become further constraints for agricultural production. Maize is one of its major crops and serves as a food and cash crop for smallholders. However, its productivity remains low. To improve maize productivity under increasing temperatures and droughts, drought-tolerant maize (DTM) has been released, but it is not widely adopted. The objective of this study is, therefore, to review the current situation of DTM adoption in Uganda and identify characteristic differences between adopters and non-adopters and possible constraints for wider adoption. In doing so, available literature, policy documents and relevant reports on the subject were reviewed. The systemic approach was not feasible due to limited availability of reliable sources. Drought-tolerant maize adopters in Uganda appeared to be better endowed with production resources such as larger farmland, be more informed, educated and experienced, have a larger household, use more inputs more efficiently, earn higher income and harvest better yield. Major constraints to DTM adoption included lack of awareness, limited seed availability and accessibility, complementary input requirement, existing DTM attributes and dubious market quality of seed and fertilizer. These constraints and adoption characteristics seemed intertwined as a virtuous or vicious cycle for DTM adoption. Although a broad range of DTM adoption constraints is identified at a household, market and national level, DTM can be an effective means to improve maize productivity under climatic challenges in Uganda. To promote its adoption, the government should take more supportive measures and effective strategies for sustainable DTM uptake.

Economic impacts of smallholder farmers’ adoption of drought-tolerant maize varieties

Drought and high temperatures are major threats to sustainable food production and consequently the livelihoods of the majority of Africans who depend on fragile agricultural systems. As a response to these threats, climate-smart agricultural technologies, such as drought-tolerant maize (DTM) varieties, have been developed and promoted on the continent. It is well-known that the adoption of improved technologies generally impacts positively on the wellbeing of adopters. Nevertheless, the magnitude of the impact of any technology or intervention is always an empirical question. Therefore, this study sought to determine the factors that influence the adoption of DTM and subsequently estimate how yield, commercialization intensity, and farm income are affected by adoption. To establish causation, we relied on observations from 200 farm households in the Northern Region of Ghana and estimated an instrumental variable regression. Consistent with findings reported in the literature, we found that DTM adoption is primarily driven by access to seed, extension service, labor availability, and location of farm households. In addition, we found that DTM adoption positively impacts on yield and commercialization intensity. The magnitude of impact is not trivial. For example, the yield of farm households increased by more than 150% (936 kg/ha) following DTM adoption. These results imply that policy-makers and development practitioners must support research and promotion of climate-smart agriculture to improve adoption and welfare indicators, such as yield and commercialization.

Wealth-related inequalities in adoption of drought-tolerant maize and conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe

This paper concerns Drought-Tolerant Maize (DTM) and Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices that were introduced into smallholder maize-based farming systems in Zimbabwe to enhance the productivity of maize and food security under a changing climate. Although these technologies are technically appropriate, there are difficulties with their use by smallholder farmers of relatively low socio-economic status, as measured through ownership of farm or household assets and endowments. Thus, we sought to quantify and explain wealth-related inequalities in the adoption of DTM and CA in smallholder farming communities and discuss their implications for food security. The analysis used cross-sectional household-level data gathered from 601 smallholder farmers from four districts in Zimbabwe. We found evidence of a pro-rich distribution of inequalities in the adoption of DTM and CA that were mostly explained by differences in household wealth, access to agricultural extension services and size of farm land. No meaningful differences in DTM adoption disparities were found across districts. Significant gender differences were observed for CA, and meaningful differences by district were noted. Results suggest the need for decision makers to consider implementing policies that focus on the poorer segments of the farming society to alleviate differences in the adoption of such agricultural technologies. For example, subsidizing the uptake of improved maize varieties including DTM and prioritizing equitable land distribution, coupled with specialised extension services for the poor in a cereal-based CA farming system, could reduce the observed gap between rich and poor in the uptake of these innovations and consequently improve food security.

Determinants of Nutritious Drought Tolerant Maize Adoption and Mineral Fertilizer Application Under Smallholder Farm Conditions in Ghana

The study sought to examine adoption of nutritious drought tolerant (DT) maize using social science research methods and participatory demonstration trials. The social science study used mixed method approach which combined both qualitative and quantitative methods. A split-plot demonstration trial of three improved maize varieties and a local variety, and two levels of Nitrogen fertilizer were established. The two fertilizer levels were low N [LN] (30 kg N ha-1) and high N [HN] (90 kg N ha-1). The results of the social science study showed 85% of men consider early maturity, grain quality and storability in adopting DT maize. Results also revealed that beside earliness and higher yield, taste and easy to harvest influenced women farmer’s choice for DT maize varieties. Climatic endurance, increased yield and grain quality showed a positive and statistically significant relationship with adoption of DT maize. On average, HN fertilization increased DT maize grain yields by 41% compared to the LN fertilization. The improved DT maize varieties had yield advantages ranging from 25 to 43% over the local variety. From this, DT maize appears to have a potential for its use with N-fertilizer in the fight against food insecurity with improved adoption and utilization in Ghana.

Interceding role of institutional extension services on the livelihood impacts of drought tolerant maize technology adoption in Zimbabwe

The study investigates whether access to agricultural extension services enhances the well-known positive impact of adopting Drought Tolerant Maize (DTM) technology on livelihood outcomes; maize yield, output per capita, consumption and sales using a representative dataset of smallholder farming households from Zimbabwe. The empirical analysis adopts an instrumental variable regression model that incorporates an endogenous interaction term to capture the intermediary role of institutional extension services. Results reveal that access to agricultural extension services enhances the relationship between DTM adoption and maize yield, output per capita, and consumption but appears to weaken the association between DTM adoption and the amount of maize set aside for sale. In exploring the potential reasons why access to institutional extension services might enhance the DTM adoption-livelihood outcomes relationship, the results suggest mechanisms related to the use of basal fertilizers, use of organic manure, access to agricultural credit, use of certified DTM seed, access to general production and marketing information, weeding frequency and disease control which are more likely to be influenced by access to agricultural extension services. The findings suggest that policies targeted at improving DTM adoption as a climate-smart agricultural technology to improve resilience of smallholder maize farming households to climate variability and change must be complemented by revitalized agriculture extension services. Revitalization of extension services may come through capacity building of extension institutions, and their personnel, improving agricultural extension infrastructure, mobility of extension personnel, and increased financing to such institutions.

Impact of drought tolerant maize adoption on maize productivity, sales and consumption in rural Zimbabwe

ABSTRACTIncreased frequency of droughts (especially mid-season dry spells), higher than normal temperatures and altered patterns of precipitation and intensity are some of the extreme weather events evident in southern Africa. These extreme weather events present a threat to livelihoods and sustainability of agricultural production in the region. However, several climate-smart agricultural technologies (including drought-tolerant maize) believed to offer adaptation to climate variability in maize-based farming systems have been widely adopted. Moreover, empirical work on these technologies is limited. This paper demonstrates how by adopting drought-tolerant maize, a climate-smart agricultural technology impacts on the quantities of maize produced, sold and consumed in Zimbabwe. Using primary data on smallholder farmers collected in 2011 in Zimbabwe’s four districts, we employed propensity score matching techniques to construct a suitable comparison group and calculate the average treatment effect on the treated sample. We find that, the adoption of drought-tolerant maize (DTM) in rural Zimbabwe significantly enhances overall maize productivity and consequently the quantities set aside for sale and personal household consumption. Our study therefore suggests that, systematic expansion of climate-smart agricultural technologies such as adoption of drought-tolerant maize can significantly improve maize yields, sales and consumption in rural Zimbabwe. Our empirical results, robust to sensitivity checks, strongly point to the overall importance of DTM adoption in Zimbabwe. The findings from this paper also have very important implications for overall efforts on the promotion of climate-smart agriculture technologies in Africa and other developing countries.

The influence of gendered roles and responsibilities on the adoption of technologies that mitigate drought risk: The case of drought-tolerant maize seed in eastern Uganda

Gender-disaggregated, household survey data for Uganda are used to examine how gendered roles and responsibilities influence adoption of drought-tolerant (DT) maize, a new technology that can help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa adapt to drought risk. Multinomial logit (MNL) regression results indicate that, compared to men farmers, women farmers have much lower adoption of DT maize, mainly due to differences in resource access, notably land, agricultural information, and credit. Differentiation of women and men farmers by various characteristics reveals that whether a male farmer was younger or older, or poor or non-poor has no significant influence on DT maize adoption; but important differences among different categories of women farmers are identified. For example, the farmer group found least likely to adopt DT maize is young, poor women household heads. MNL results also show that wives strongly influence adoption of DT maize on plots controlled by their husbands. We discuss the implications of study findings for the development of well-targeted and socially-inclusive adaptation policies.

Potential impacts of increasing average yields and reducing maize yield variability in Africa

This study evaluates the potential impacts of investing in Drought Tolerant Maize (DTM) in 13 countries of East, South and West Africa. The analysis utilizes geo-referenced production data at the regional and household levels and employs a model that estimates both the conventional mean yield gains and the additional benefits from yield stability gains of DTM varieties as well as impacts on poverty. The results indicate that by 2016, adoption of DTM can generate between US$ 362million and US$ 590million in cumulative benefits to both producers and consumers. Yield variance reductions stand to generate considerable benefits, especially in high drought risk areas. These benefits translate into poverty reductions in the range of 0.01–4.29% by 2016. Significant benefits are also found among different types of households living in drought risk areas of Kenya, Ethiopia and Nigeria.