Scholarly Works, Agricultural and Applied Economics

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https://hdl.handle.net/10919/24298
Research articles, presentations, and other scholarship

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Browsing Scholarly Works, Agricultural and Applied Economics by Subject "1605 Policy And Administration"

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    Is DNA fingerprinting the gold standard for estimation of adoption and impacts of improved lentil varieties?
    Alwang, Jeffrey R.; Yigezu, Yigezu A.; Rahman, Wakilur; Mollah, M. Bazlur; El-Shater, Tamer; Aw-Hassan, Aden; Sarker, Ashutosh (2018-11-01)
    In the early 1980s, disease susceptibility in short-season lentil landraces began to limit productivity in areas where relay cropping took place in Bangladesh. Since then, several improved high-yielding lentil varieties, which are resistant to rust and blight and suitable in the relay cropping system, have been released jointly by national and international research centers. This study used three methods, namely a panel of experts, a survey of 1,000 households where the respondents named the variety they used, and DNA fingerprinting of seed samples collected from all lentil plots cultivated by survey households to estimate adoption. Double hurdle and instrumental variables regression methods were applied to the household survey and DNA fingerprinting data to identify determinants of adoption and measure their impacts. Of particular interest was whether estimates of adoption, determinants of adoption and impacts varied by method of variety identification. Results showed that the expert panel overestimated the adoption of more recent varieties while about 89 percent of the farmer-reported varieties were accurate, as verified by DNA fingerprinting. DNA fingerprinting appears to have little advantage for estimating the level of adoption in this case, where few varieties of lentils are found, local variety names do not exist, and most seed is obtained through a formal system. However, even under these conditions, determinants of adoption vary by identification method, and use of farmer-reported information on the variety can lead to erroneous conclusions about determinants of adoption. Because recent breeding efforts have focused on taste and cooking considerations, yield impacts were not significantly different from zero.
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    Promoting rapid and sustained adoption of biofortified crops: What we learned from iron-biofortified bean delivery approaches in Rwanda
    Vaiknoras, Kate; Larochelle, Catherine; Birol, Ekin; Asare-Marfo, Dorene; Herrington, Caitlin (2018-11-18)
    Micronutrient deficiencies, also known as hidden hunger, affect two billion people worldwide, curtailing their ability to lead healthy, productive lives. Biofortified staple crops, bred to be rich in micronutrient content, are a cost-effective and scalable solution to alleviating micronutrient deficiency, particularly among rural households who consume what they produce. Delivery of biofortified planting material in Rwanda began in 2012, and it is important to learn from the efforts undertaken to date to inform the design of higher impact – lower cost delivery strategies for scaling up these crops. In this paper, we use a nationally representative household survey of bean producers and delivery data from seven consecutive seasons and apply duration analysis to estimate the impact of different delivery approaches on household time to adoption, disadoption and readoption of iron-biofortified beans in Rwanda. Proximity to formal delivery via sales of small packets of planting material quickens adoption and readoption, while delivery of larger quantities of planting material to small-scale producers within a village slows disadoption of iron-biofortified beans. Informal dissemination within social networks and access to extension are also major drivers of rapid adoption. In addition, households whose main decision maker for bean production is a woman, has some formal education, and more years of experience growing beans disadopt iron-biofortified beans more slowly than other households. These findings provide evidence that current efforts to promote iron-biofortified crops have been successful and are expected to inform future development of sustainable and cost-effective delivery models for biofortified crops in Rwanda and elsewhere.