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

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Author Info
Pedro Cerdán-Infantes () (Office of Evaluation and Oversight at the Interamerican Development Bank.)
Alessandro Maffioli () (Office of Evaluation and Oversight at the Interamerican Development Bank.)
Diego Ubfal () (Department of Economics, University of California at Los Angeles.)

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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.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Inter-American Development Bank, Office of Evaluation and Oversight (OVE) in its series OVE Working Papers with number 0508.

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Length: 40 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:idb:ovewps:0508

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Related research
Keywords: Technology Adoption; Productivity; Agriculture Sector; Policy Evaluation;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
Q16 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - R&D; Agricultural Technology; Agricultural Extension Services
H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Hanson, James C & Just, Richard E, 2001. " The Potential for Transition to Paid Extension: Some Guiding Economic Principles," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, American Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 83(3), pages 777-84, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Ariel Dinar & Giannis Karagiannis & Vangelis Tzouvelekas, . "Evaluating the Impact of Public and Private Agricultural Extension on Farms Performance: A Non-neutral Stochastic Frontier Approach," Working Papers 0205, University of Crete, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Alston, Julian M. & Marra, Michele C. & Pardey, Philip G. & Wyatt, T. J., 1998. "Research returns redux: a meta-analysis of the returns to agricultural R&D," EPTD discussion papers 38, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  4. Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Evenson, Robert E., 1994. "Efficiency in agricultural production: The case of peasant farmers in eastern Paraguay," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 27-37, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Heckman, James J, 1979. "Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(1), pages 153-61, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Evenson, Robert E., 2001. "Economic impacts of agricultural research and extension," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 11, pages 573-628 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Brian Roe & Timothy C. Haab & Brent Sohngen, 2004. "The Value of Agricultural Economics Extension Programming: An Application of Contingent Valuation," Review of Agricultural Economics, American Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 26(3), pages 373-390, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Dinar, Ariel & Keynan, Gabriel, 2001. " Economics of Paid Extension: Lessons from Experience in Nicaragua," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, American Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 83(3), pages 769-76, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Birkhaeuser, Dean & Evenson, Robert E & Feder, Gershon, 1991. "The Economic Impact of Agricultural Extension: A Review," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(3), pages 607-50, April.
    Other versions:
  10. Coase, R H, 1974. "The Lighthouse in Economics," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 357-76, October.
  11. Anderson, Jock R. & Feder, Gershon, 2007. "Agricultural Extension," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Mattia Romani, 2004. "The impact of extension services in times of crisis: Côte d’Ivoire (1997-2000)," Development and Comp Systems 0409053, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  14. O'Neill, S. & Matthews, A. & Leavy, A, 1999. "Farm Technical Efficiency and Extension," Trinity Economics Papers 9912, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  15. Heckman, James J. & Lalonde, Robert J. & Smith, Jeffrey A., 1999. "The economics and econometrics of active labor market programs," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 31, pages 1865-2097 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Feder, Gershon & Murgai, Rinku & Quizon, Jaime B., 2003. "Sending farmers back to school - the impact of farmer field schools in Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3022, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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