Impact of Korra tef adoption on farm household productivity and incomes in Central Ethiopia

Abstract

Tef (Eragrostis tef) is a major staple and income sourcing crop in the horn of Africa; that has attracted tremendous investment particularly in research. It is expected that the improved seed varieties will contribute to raising farm productivity and consequently, farmers’ income. The objective of this study was to assess how the adoption of improved tef variety has influenced household productivity and incomes, with a focus on the Korra tef variety introduced by the Agricultural Growth Programme phase II, in Ethiopia. Cross-sectional data were collected from 479 randomly selected farm households, in two woredas in Central Ethiopia; one as an adopter and the other as a non-adopter. The Propensity Score Matching (PSM) approach was used to investigate the adoption of the Korra tef variety and its impacts on household production and income, over the yield obtained by the non-adopters. The PSM model’s robustness was tested using regression on variables and regression on propensity scores. The adoption of the Korra tef variety, according to the PSM approach, increased tef productivity by 598.78 kg (nearly 6 quintals) per hectare, over the yield obtained by the non-adopters. Additionally, switching to the Korra tef variety raised household income by US$ 806.73 per hectare. We conclude that the adoption of Korra tef variety increases the productivity and incomes of adopter farm households.