Input subsidies and demand for improved maize: Relative prices and household heterogeneity matter!

Stein Holden ()

No 6/13, CLTS Working Papers from Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies

Abstract: This study uses simple non-separable farm household models calibrated to household, market, farming and policy context conditions in Central and Southern Malawi. The models are used to simulate how household characteristics, design and access to input subsidies affect the demand for improved maize seeds; how increasing land scarcity affects the cropping system and demand for improved maize; and how access to improved maize seeds affects household welfare with varying access to input subsidies. The model simulations demonstrate that a) there is a high risk that access to subsidized improved maize seeds can crowd out commercial demand for improved maize seeds but the effect is very sensitive to household characteristics, market characteristics and relative prices; b) increasing land scarcity increases the demand for improved maize seeds and improved maize facilitates intensification among others through intercropping of maize with legumes such as beans and pigeon peas; c) the welfare effects depend on households’ ability to utilize the potential of the improved varieties by combining them with complementary inputs.

Keywords: Improved maize varieties; input subsidies; impact on seed demand; land scarcity; intensification; cash constraints; household welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q12 Q16 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2013-06-03, Revised 2019-10-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-agr
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nmbu.no/download/file/fid/40184 Full text (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:hhs:nlsclt:2013_006

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CLTS Working Papers from Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Aas, Norway. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Ephrida Tione ().