IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v13y2023i3p611-d1085824.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of Improved Maize Varieties on Production Efficiency in Nigeria: Separating Technology from Managerial Gaps

Author

Listed:
  • Toba Stephen Olasehinde

    (Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Graduate School Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 12 South Avenue, Beijing 100081, China
    Smart Green Development Nigeria, Ltd., 4, Odo-Isolo Street, Ilasa Ekiti 370104, Nigeria)

  • Fangbin Qiao

    (China Economics and Management Academy, Central University of Finance and Economics, 39 South College Road, Beijing 100081, China)

  • Shiping Mao

    (Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Graduate School Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 12 South Avenue, Beijing 100081, China)

Abstract

Researchers and policymakers are concerned about the substantial and increasing yield gap between sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world. High-yielding improved varieties are widely perceived as a means to close this gap. This study combines impact evaluation and production analysis techniques, which mitigate estimation biases stemming from observed and unobserved heterogeneity, to estimate the effects of improved varieties on maize productivity using a unique, recent, and nationally representative household survey. A linear endogenous treatment–effect model based on a matched sample obtained from propensity score matching indicated that the improved maize varieties increased yield by 38.7%. Simultaneously, selectivity-corrected and stochastic metafrontier approaches show that the yield advantage of improved varieties is mainly due to technological change; however, the technical efficiency of improved varieties is similar to those of traditional varieties.

Suggested Citation

  • Toba Stephen Olasehinde & Fangbin Qiao & Shiping Mao, 2023. "Impact of Improved Maize Varieties on Production Efficiency in Nigeria: Separating Technology from Managerial Gaps," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-14, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:3:p:611-:d:1085824
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/3/611/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/3/611/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Ssozi & Simplice A. Asongu, 2016. "The Comparative Economics of Catch-up in Output per Worker, Total Factor Productivity and Technological Gain in Sub-Saharan Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 28(2), pages 215-228, June.
    2. Abdul-Rahaman, Awal & Abdulai, Awudu, 2018. "Do farmer groups impact on farm yield and efficiency of smallholder farmers? Evidence from rice farmers in northern Ghana," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 95-105.
    3. Lori Beaman & Dean Karlan & Bram Thuysbaert & Christopher Udry, 2013. "Profitability of Fertilizer: Experimental Evidence from Female Rice Farmers in Mali," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 381-386, May.
    4. Andrea Pufahl & Christoph R. Weiss, 2009. "Evaluating the effects of farm programmes: results from propensity score matching," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 36(1), pages 79-101, March.
    5. Salvatore Di Falco & Marcella Veronesi & Mahmud Yesuf, 2011. "Does Adaptation to Climate Change Provide Food Security? A Micro-Perspective from Ethiopia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(3), pages 825-842.
    6. Cliff Huang & Tai-Hsin Huang & Nan-Hung Liu, 2014. "A new approach to estimating the metafrontier production function based on a stochastic frontier framework," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 241-254, December.
    7. Liverpool-Tasie, Lenis Saweda & Salau, Sheu, 2013. "Spillover effects of targeted subsidies: An assessment of fertilizer and improved seed use in Nigeria," IFPRI discussion papers 1260, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Bao-Guang Chang & Tai-Hsin Huang & Chun-Yi Kuo, 2015. "A comparison of the technical efficiency of accounting firms among the US, China, and Taiwan under the framework of a stochastic metafrontier production function," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 337-349, December.
    9. Ma, Wanglin & Renwick, Alan & Yuan, Peng & Ratna, Nazmun, 2018. "Agricultural cooperative membership and technical efficiency of apple farmers in China: An analysis accounting for selectivity bias," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 122-132.
    10. Justice Tambo & Tahirou Abdoulaye, 2012. "Climate change and agricultural technology adoption: the case of drought tolerant maize in rural Nigeria," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 277-292, March.
    11. Terrance Hurley & Jawoo Koo & Kindie Tesfaye, 2018. "Weather risk: how does it change the yield benefits of nitrogen fertilizer and improved maize varieties in sub‐Saharan Africa?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(6), pages 711-723, November.
    12. Christopher O’Donnell & D. Rao & George Battese, 2008. "Metafrontier frameworks for the study of firm-level efficiencies and technology ratios," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 231-255, March.
    13. Andrew Dillon & Kevin McGee & Gbemisola Oseni, 2015. "Agricultural Production, Dietary Diversity and Climate Variability," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(8), pages 976-995, August.
    14. Beaman, Lori & Karlan, Dean & Thuysbaert, Bram & Udry, Christopher, 2013. "Probability of Fertilizer: Experimental Evidence from Female Rice Farmers in Mali," Working Papers 111, Yale University, Department of Economics.
    15. Comin, D. & Hobijn, B., 2004. "Cross-country technology adoption: making the theories face the facts," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 39-83, January.
    16. Boris Bravo-Ureta & William Greene & Daniel Solís, 2012. "Technical efficiency analysis correcting for biases from observed and unobserved variables: an application to a natural resource management project," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 55-72, August.
    17. Kodde, David A & Palm, Franz C, 1986. "Wald Criteria for Jointly Testing Equality and Inequality Restriction s," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(5), pages 1243-1248, September.
    18. Boris E. Bravo‐Ureta & Alexandre Nunes Almeida & Daniel Solís & Aarón Inestroza, 2011. "The Economic Impact of Marena’s Investments on Sustainable Agricultural Systems in Honduras," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 429-448, June.
    19. Zewdu Ayalew Abro & Moti Jaleta & Matin Qaim, 2017. "Yield effects of rust-resistant wheat varieties in Ethiopia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(6), pages 1343-1357, December.
    20. Kumbhakar,Subal C. & Wang,Hung-Jen & Horncastle,Alan P., 2015. "A Practitioner's Guide to Stochastic Frontier Analysis Using Stata," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107609464.
    21. Salvatore Di Falco & Marcella Veronesi, 2013. "How Can African Agriculture Adapt to Climate Change? A Counterfactual Analysis from Ethiopia," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 89(4), pages 743-766.
    22. Zheng, Hongyun & Ma, Wanglin & Wang, Fang & Li, Gucheng, 2021. "Does internet use improve technical efficiency of banana production in China? Evidence from a selectivity-corrected analysis," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    23. Maria Martinez Cillero & Michael Wallace & Fiona Thorne & James Breen, 2021. "Analyzing the Impact of Subsidies on Beef Production Efficiency in Selected European Union Countries. A Stochastic Metafrontier Approach," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(5), pages 1903-1923, October.
    24. Tahirou Abdoulaye & Tesfamicheal Wossen & Bola Awotide, 2018. "Impacts of improved maize varieties in Nigeria: ex-post assessment of productivity and welfare outcomes," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(2), pages 369-379, April.
    25. William Greene, 2010. "A stochastic frontier model with correction for sample selection," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 15-24, August.
    26. Shahidur R. Khandker & Gayatri B. Koolwal & Hussain A. Samad, . "Handbook on Impact Evaluation : Quantitative Methods and Practices," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 2693, September.
    27. Sènakpon F. A. Dedehouanou & John McPeak, 2020. "Diversify More or Less? Household Income Generation Strategies and Food Security in Rural Nigeria," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(3), pages 560-577, March.
    28. George Battese & D. Rao & Christopher O'Donnell, 2004. "A Metafrontier Production Function for Estimation of Technical Efficiencies and Technology Gaps for Firms Operating Under Different Technologies," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 91-103, January.
    29. Renato Villano & Boris Bravo-Ureta & Daniel Solís & Euan Fleming, 2015. "Modern Rice Technologies and Productivity in the Philippines: Disentangling Technology from Managerial Gaps," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(1), pages 129-154, February.
    30. repec:zwi:journl:v:43:y:2012:i:1:p:55-72 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yimin Hu & Shuqi Yang & Xin Qian & Zongxin Li & Yuchuan Fan & Kiril Manevski & Yuanquan Chen & Wangsheng Gao, 2023. "Bibliometric Network Analysis of Crop Yield Gap Research over the Past Three Decades," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Higgins, Daniel & Arslan, Aslihan, 2020. "Irrigation infrastructure and farm productivity in the Philippines: A stochastic Meta-Frontier analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    2. Awal Abdul‐Rahaman & Gazali Issahaku & Wanglin Ma, 2023. "Agrifood system participation and production efficiency among smallholder vegetable farmers in Northern Ghana," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 812-835, July.
    3. Neubauer, Florian & Songsermsawas, Tisorn & Kámiche-Zegarra, Joanna & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E., 2022. "Technical efficiency and technological gaps correcting for selectivity bias: Insights from a value chain project in Nepal," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    4. Owusu, Eric S. & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E., 2022. "Reap when you sow? The productivity impacts of early sowing in Malawi," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    5. Carrer, Marcelo José & Filho, Hildo Meirelles de Souza & Vinholis, Marcela de Mello Brandão & Mozambani, Carlos Ivan, 2022. "Precision agriculture adoption and technical efficiency: An analysis of sugarcane farms in Brazil," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    6. Abdul-Rahaman, Awal & Issahaku, Gazali & Zereyesus, Yacob A., 2021. "Improved rice variety adoption and farm production efficiency: Accounting for unobservable selection bias and technology gaps among smallholder farmers in Ghana," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Khanal, Uttam & Wilson, Clevo & Shankar, Sriram & Hoang, Viet-Ngu & Lee, Boon, 2018. "Farm performance analysis: Technical efficiencies and technology gaps of Nepalese farmers in different agro-ecological regions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 645-653.
    8. Toba Stephen Olasehinde & Fangbin Qiao & Shiping Mao, 2022. "Performance of Nigerian Rice Farms from 2010 to 2019: A Stochastic Metafrontier Approach," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, July.
    9. Boris E. Bravo‐Ureta & Mario González‐Flores & William Greene & Daniel Solís, 2021. "Technology and Technical Efficiency Change: Evidence from a Difference in Differences Selectivity Corrected Stochastic Production Frontier Model," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(1), pages 362-385, January.
    10. Ayobami Adetoyinbo & Verena Otter, 2022. "Can producer groups improve technical efficiency among artisanal shrimpers in Nigeria? A study accounting for observed and unobserved selectivity," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-33, December.
    11. Richard Adjei Dwumfour & Eric Fosu Oteng-Abayie & Emmanuel Kwasi Mensah, 2022. "Bank efficiency and the bank lending channel: new evidence," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 1489-1542, September.
    12. Khalid Maman Waziri, 2017. "Generalized Glass Ceilings in the United States – A Stochastic Metafrontier Approach," Working Papers halshs-01569834, HAL.
    13. Sreejith Aravindakshan & Frederick Rossi & T. S. Amjath-Babu & Prakashan Chellattan Veettil & Timothy J. Krupnik, 2018. "Application of a bias-corrected meta-frontier approach and an endogenous switching regression to analyze the technical efficiency of conservation tillage for wheat in South Asia," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 153-171, June.
    14. Nguyen, Hoa-Thi-Minh & Do, Huong & Kompas, Tom, 2021. "Economic efficiency versus social equity: The productivity challenge for rice production in a ‘greying’ rural Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    15. Luis A. De los Santos‐Montero & Boris E. Bravo‐Ureta, 2017. "Productivity effects and natural resource management: econometric evidence from POSAF‐II in Nicaragua," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(4), pages 220-233, November.
    16. Asante, Bright O. & Temoso, Omphile & Addai, Kwabena N. & Villano, Renato A., 2019. "Evaluating productivity gaps in maize production across different agroecological zones in Ghana," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    17. Xiaoheng Zhang & Wanglin Ma & Puneet Vatsa & Shijie Jiang, 2023. "Short supply chain, technical efficiency, and technological change: Insights from cucumber production," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 371-386, March.
    18. Ngango, Jules & Hong, Seungjee, 2021. "Impacts of land tenure security on yield and technical efficiency of maize farmers in Rwanda," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    19. Kamiche Zegarra, J. & Bravo-Ureta, B., 2018. "Are users of market information efficient? A stochastic production frontier model corrected by sample selection," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275870, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Phuc Trong Ho & Pham Xuan Hung & Nguyen Duc Tien, 2023. "Effects of varieties and seasons on cost efficiency in rice farming: A stochastic metafrontier approach," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 13(2), pages 120-129.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:3:p:611-:d:1085824. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.