Is fertilizer use really suboptimnal in sub-Saharan Africa? The case of rice in Nigeria

Lenis Liverpool-Tasie

No 212053, 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: This article revisits a conventional wisdom that inorganic fertilizer use across sub Saharan Africa is too low. This assumes that it is profitable to use rates higher than observed. The paper exploits the political economy of fertilizer access in Nigeria to obtain consistent estimates of the effects of applied nitrogen on rice production. We find the yield response to applied nitrogen to be marginal in the main rice growing farming system. Farmer behavior is not inconsistent with profitability which is limited by a low yield response to fertilizer, high transportation costs and low selling prices for rice in rural areas.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38
Date: 2015
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 (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/212053/files/L ... 20The%20case-750.pdf (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:iaae15:212053

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.212053

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy from International Association of Agricultural Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().