The impact of the use of new technologies on farmers’ wheat yield in Ethiopia: evidence from a randomized control trial

Gashaw Abate, Tanguy Bernard, Alan de Brauw and Nicholas Minot

Agricultural Economics, 2018, vol. 49, issue 4, 409-421

Abstract: In 2013, Ethiopia's Agricultural Transformation Agency introduced the Wheat Initiative to increase smallholder productivity. In this article, we measure the impacts of the Wheat Initiative package of technologies, and its marketing assistance component alone, on yields among a promotional group of farmers. The package includes improved techniques, improved inputs, and a guaranteed market for the crop. Relying on crop‐cut measures and farmers’ own assessments, we find that full package led to an average 14% higher yields. Implementation of the Wheat Initiative was successful in making certified seed and fertilizer accessible to farmers and increasing their uptake, though only 61% of the intervention group adopted row planting and few farmers received marketing assistance. The measured yield difference may underestimate the true yield difference associated with the technology because of incomplete adoption of the recommended practices by intervention farmers and adoption of some practices by control farmers.

Date: 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12425

Related works:
Working Paper: The impact of the use of new technologies on farmers’ wheat yield in Ethiopia: evidence from a randomized control trial (2018)
Working Paper: The Impact of the Use of New Technologies on Farmers’ Wheat Yield in Ethiopia: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial (2016)
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