article · Cogent Economics & Finance
Wheat is cultivated across diverse agro-ecologies in Ethiopia, yet crop yields have remained stubbornly low. An investigation into 693 farming households in the North Shewa Zone examined how adopting agricultural technologies influences wheat productivity. The findings demonstrate that applying chemical fertiliser and planting improved seeds both significantly increase yields. Furthermore, combining fertiliser with improved seed varieties delivers higher productivity gains than using either technology in isolation. Several socioeconomic factors determine whether smallholder farmers take up these inputs, including the education level of the household head, participation in off-farm employment, livestock ownership, access to formal credit, household savings, agricultural extension visits, and proximity to local markets. Improving wheat yields in the region therefore requires joint efforts between government bodies and agricultural stakeholders to support technology generation, dissemination, and farm-level adoption.
Wheat is a vital food crop, but low yields threaten food security and rural livelihoods. Identifying which agricultural inputs deliver the highest productivity, and the barriers smallholder farmers face when accessing them, helps policymakers design targeted extension programmes and rural credit services that promote the uptake of high-yielding farming practices.
The findings are directly relevant to seed suppliers, fertiliser distributors, and agricultural extension services targeting smallholder wheat producers. Because the interventions involve existing, commercially available inputs tested on active farms, the application is already near-market. Commercial distributors and microfinance institutions could package improved seeds alongside fertiliser and credit to overcome adoption hurdles identified in rural communities.
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Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops cultivated in wide range of agro-ecologies in Ethiopia. But, its productivity has remained low. Hence, this study intends to examine the impact of agricultural technology adoption on wheat productivity in north Shewa zone of the Amhara region, Ethiopia. The analysis is based on household level data covering 693 households collected in 2020. Multinomial logit model (MNL) and multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) models are used for analysis. The results reveal that agricultural technology adoptions are affected by the education level of the household head, off-farm employment, tropical livestock, access to credit, household saving, extension visit, and distance from the market. In addition, the study shows that the adoption of fertilizer and/or improved seed increases wheat productivity significantly. Furthermore, the adoption of a combined fertilizer and improved seed provides higher productivity than the adoption of single technologies. Therefore, this study recommends that government and other stakeholders should have to work in collaboration with rural farmers to increase rural technology generation; dissemination and adoption interventions to improve wheat productivity in the study area.
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DOI: 10.1080/23322039.2022.2101223
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