YIELD RESPONSE OF DRYLAND CEREALS IN MALI TO FERTILIZER: INSIGHTS FROM HOUSEHOLD SURVEY DATA

Hamza Haider, Melinda Smale (msmale@msu.edu) and Véronique Thériault

No 270642, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Papers from Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP)

Abstract: In Mali, over 60% of the population lives in rural areas and about half of them live under the poverty line (World Bank 2017). Since most rural people depend on agriculture as their main source of livelihood, increasing agricultural productivity is crucial for decreasing poverty. This article explores the effectiveness of nitrogen fertilizer for increasing dry-land cereal crop yields. Using the LSMS-ISA and a Sudan-Savanna dataset, simple econometric analysis suggests there is little effect of nitrogen fertilizer use on crop yields. However, when we account for the endogeneity of fertilizer use, we find yield response rates that are within the range reported in the literature. As expected, sorghum yields have a lower response to fertilizer than maize yields. Dryland cereal yield responses to fertilizer are stronger in the Sudan Savanna region (sample) than nationwide (nationally-representative dataset), highlighting the importance of agroecological factors and farming system. Soil texture and practices (anti-erosion structures) affect both yields and estimated effects of fertilizer. We also find phosphorus to be a binding constraint in increasing agricultural productivity. While most emphasis in the literature is placed on understanding nitrogen fertilizer use, it is crucial to promote balanced use of fertilizers so that other complementary nutrients are available in the soil.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Food Security and Poverty; International Development; Productivity Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-01-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/270642/files/FSP%20Research%20Paper%2092.pdf (application/pdf)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/270642/files/F ... 2.pdf?subformat=pdfa (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:miffrp:270642

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.270642

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Papers from Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search (aesearch@umn.edu).