Impact of agricultural technology adoption on wheat productivity: Evidence from North Shewa Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• Wheat
• technology adoption
• multinomial logit
• multinomial endogenous switching regression
• productivity

Public interest statement

Wheat is one of largest cereal crops produced for consumption and marketing purpose in Ethiopia. But its productivity is very low. Currently, Ethiopian government is applying different measures to improve the productivity including the expansion of the adoption of new or improved agricultural technologies. So, this study tried to examine the impact of agricultural technology adoption on wheat productivity in the north Shewa zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. The results revealed that the adoption of agricultural technology significantly increases wheat productivity.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The problem arises because farmers’ decision to adopt alternative technology packages may be correlated with the outcome variable of interest (Teklewold et al., 2013). Therefore, separate productivity functions have to be specified for each group of complementary options while at the same time accounting for endogeneity.

2. Farmers make their own decisions (self-select) whether to adopt or not to adopt a particular combination of the package. As a result, their decisions are usually affected by unobserved factors such as demographic, socio-economic, and institutional factors. The unobserved factors may have a direct correlation with the variable of interest (Danso-Abbeam & Baiyegunhi, 2018).

3. It is the problem of being unable to assess what the situation would be like if the technology had not been adopted (Belay & Mengiste, 2021). This is because outcomes can only be observed in one state at a time and the counterfactuals for the adoption of each combination alternatives cannot be observed.

4. Measured as quintal per hectare.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Mesele Belay Zegeye

Mesele Belay Zegeye is a lecturer at Debre Berhan University, Ethiopia. His research interest includes the effect and effectiveness of policies, poverty, food security, technology adoption, and agricultural innovations and extensions, and agricultural productivity.

Abebaw Hailu Fikrie

Abebaw Hailu Fikrie is a lecturer at Debre Berhan University, Ethiopia. His current research interests are development issues like urban and rural development, agricultural economics, food security, microeconomic, and macroeconomics policy analysis.

Anteneh Bizualem Asefa

Anteneh Bizualem Asefa is a lecturer at Debre Berhan University. His research interest includes macroeconomics policy analysis and international trade.