R&D Innovation Adoption, Climatic Sensitivity, and Absorptive Ability Contribution for Agriculture TFP Growth in Pakistan

Muhammad Usman, Gulnaz Hameed, Abdul Saboor, Lal K. Almas and Muhammad Hanif
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Muhammad Usman: Department of Economics, Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Rawalpindi 46000, Pakistan
Gulnaz Hameed: Department of Economics, Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Rawalpindi 46000, Pakistan
Abdul Saboor: Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Rawalpindi 46000, Pakistan
Lal K. Almas: Paul Engler College of Agriculture & Natural Sciences, West Texas A&M University, Canyon, TX 79016, USA
Muhammad Hanif: Department of Statistics and Mathematics, Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Rawalpindi 46000, Pakistan

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: Innovation adoptions in agriculture sustain high total factor productivity (TFP) growth and overcome a potential production gap, which is beneficial for food security. Research and development (R&D) innovation adoption in agriculture sector is dependent on producers’ willingness to adopt, knowledge capital spillovers, and financial capacity. This research aims to investigate the impact of R&D innovation adoption and climate factors on agriculture TFP growth in Pakistan. The annual time series data were collected from different sources for the period of 1972–2020. For measuring the agriculture TFP, this study adopted the Cobb Douglas and Translog production functions. To analyze the impact of R&D innovation adoption and climate change on agricultural productivity, the dynamic autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) and two-stage least square (TSLS) approaches were applied for regression analysis. The study outcomes highlight that the agricultural innovation adoption has a significantly positive impact on agriculture TFP growth in Pakistan with weak farmers’ absorptive ability. According to the results, agriculture tractors, innovative seed distribution, and fertilizer consumptions make a significantly positive contribution to agriculture TFP growth. Further, rainfall shows a positive and significant impact on agricultural productivity, where a moderate climate is beneficial for agricultural productivity. The estimation results contain policy suggestions for sustainable R&D adoption and agrarians’ absorptive ability. Based on the obtained results, it has been suggested that producers should focus on R&D innovation adoption to attain higher productivity. The government needs to emphasize innovative technology adoption, specifically to implement the extension services to increase farmers’ education, skills based training, and networking among the farmers to enhance their knowledge capital and absorptive ability. The farmers should also focus on the adoption of climate smart agriculture that can be achieved through the proper utilization of rainwater. For this purpose, the government needs to develop small community dams and large-scale dams for better use of rainwater harvesting.

Keywords: technology adoption; climatic variation; absorptive ability; agriculture TFP growth; TSLS; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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