Farmer management of production risk on degraded lands: the role of wheat variety diversity in the Tigray region, Ethiopia

Salvatore Di Falco (), Jean-Paul Chavas () and Melinda Smale ()

Agricultural Economics, 2007, vol. 36, issue 2, pages 147-156

Abstract: This article investigates the effects of wheat genetic diversity and land degradation on risk and agricultural productivity in less favored production environments of a developing agricultural economy. Drawing production data from a household survey conducted in the highlands of Ethiopia, we estimate a stochastic production function to evaluate the effects of variety richness, land degradation, and their interaction on the mean and the variance of wheat yield. Ethiopia is a center of diversity for durum wheat and farmers manage complex variety mixtures on multiple plots. Econometric evidence shows that variety richness increases farm productivity. Variety richness also reduces yield variability but only for high levels of genetic diversity. Simulations with estimated parameters illustrate how planting more diverse durum wheat varieties on multiple plots contribute to improving farmer's welfare. Copyright 2007 International Association of Agricultural Economists.

Date: 2007
View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2007.00194.x link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:agecon:v:36:y:2007:i:2:p:147-156

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0169-5150

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Economics is edited by W.A. Masters and G.E. Shively

More articles in Agricultural Economics from International Association of Agricultural Economists
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().