The Impact of Agricultural Extension Services: The Case of Grape Production in Argentina

Pedro Cerdán-Infantes (), Alessandro Maffioli () and Diego Ubfal
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Pedro Cerdán-Infantes: Office of Evaluation and Oversight at the Interamerican Development Bank.

No 508, OVE Working Papers from Inter-American Development Bank, Office of Evaluation and Oversight (OVE)

Abstract: In this paper we evaluate the impact of the provision of agricultural extension services to grape producers in Mendoza, Argentina, on yield and grape quality. Using fixed effects and matching techniques, we show that despite non-significant average treatment effects on yield, the program has large positive effects on productivity for producers who were in the bottom of the productivity distribution before launching of the program. There is also evidence of increased quality of their grapes, especially for large producers and those in the middle of the yield distribution ex-ante. However, large groups of producers did not see impact on yields or quality. Consistent with a previous qualitative evaluation of the program, these results point to the need to balance flexibility of the program with effective targeting mechanisms. Producers with different characteristics, such as land size, productivity or structure of production seek different objectives and have different needs, so that targeting these types of programs effectively to the different needs of producers would increase their effectiveness.

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Productivity; Agriculture Sector; Policy Evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H43 Q12 Q16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2008-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-eff and nep-ppm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:idb:ovewps:0508

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