Low Quality, Low Returns, Low Adoption: Evidence from the Market for Fertilizer and Hybrid Seed in Uganda

Jakob Svensson, David Yanagizawa-Drott, Tessa Bold and Kayuki Kaizzi

No 10743, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: To reduce poverty and food insecurity in Africa requires raising productivity in agriculture. Systematic use of fertilizer and hybrid seed is a pathway to increased productivity, but adoption of these technologies remains low. We investigate whether the quality of agricultural inputs can help explain low take-up. Testing modern products purchased in local markets, we find that 30% of nutrient is missing in fertilizer, and hybrid maize seed contains less than 50% authentic seeds. We document that such low quality results in negative average returns. If authentic technologies replaced these low-quality products, average returns for smallholder farmers would be over 50%.

Keywords: agriculture; Substandard inputs; Technology adoption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 O33 Q16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-eff
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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Working Paper: Low Quality, Low Returns, Low Adoption: Evidence from the Market for Fertilizer and Hybrid Seed in Uganda (2015)
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