3rd Africa Rice Congress Theme 4: Rice policy for food security through smallholder and agribusiness development Mini symposium 4: Evidence of impact and adoption of rice technologies Author: Arouna

1. Does adoption of improved rice
varieties impact farmers’ economic
efficiency? A case study of NERICA in
West Africa
Aminou Arouna and Aliou Diagne
Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice)

2. Outline
1. Introduction
2. Objectives
3. Data analysis methods
4. Data collection
5. Results
6. Conclusion and policy recommendation

3. Introduction
• Rice is the most important food crop of developing
world and staple food of 3.5 billion people
• In Africa, rice consumption is increasing at a rate of
5.7% (1980 to 2009)
• Local production of the continent is largely
insufficient to meet the demand
• The gap has increased over time, from 1.2 MT in
1960 to 8.3 MT in 2012

4. Introduction

5. Introduction
• New technologies (e.g. NERICA) have received
particular attention as a means to close the gap
• Recent estimates showed that land productivity of
rice has increased by 30% in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Closing gap between demand and local production
cannot be reach only by increasing the land
productivity but by increasing overall productivity

6. Introduction
• Does new technologies varieties improve the
efficiency efficiencies of rice farmers?
• To what extent rice production can be improved
under existing new technologies?

7. Objectives
• This study seeks to assess the impact of NERICA
adoption on technical, allocative and economic
efficiencies of rice farmers in West Africa.
• Specifically, the study aims to:
1. Estimate technical, allocative and economic
efficiencies of adopters and non-adopters
2. Analyze the determinants of technical, allocative
and economic efficiencies
3. Quantify the impact of NERICA adoption on
technical, allocative and economic efficiencies

8. Data analysis methods
 Efficiency analysis
• Use of stochastic
frontier approach
Weather disturbances and
heterogeneous
environmental factors like
soil quality and irrigation
access
• Double-log production
frontier is estimated for
both production and
cost functions

9. Data analysis methods
 Impact assessment
• Impact = outcome with the intervention
compared to what it would have been in the
absence of the intervention

10. Data analysis methods
 Impact assessment
Adopters
Better off
True impact
Y1
Y0
Y1
Naïve impact estimate
Selection bias
Outcome
Worse off
Y0
Non-adopters
Time
True Impact = Y1 – Y0 under participation
Naïve impact estimate = Y1 – Y0 (Difference of observed outcomes)
Selection bias = Y0 – Y0 > 0 Overestimation of benefits
10

11. Data analysis methods
Total unrealized potential impact at time t1
Total unrealized potential impact at time t2
Total Impact
Total potential impact
(assumed constant)
Total actual impact at time t1
t1
t2
Time
Total actual impact at time t2

12. Data analysis methods

13. Data analysis methods

14. Data collection
• Ex-post survey impact assessment
survey of the multinational NERICA
rice dissemination project in 2010
• Stratified random sampling
• Data collected from 3,096 riceproducing households in 250
villages in 7 west african countries
(Benin, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,
Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone)
• Data collected concerned:
socioeconomic characteristic, rice
input and output, farm and nonfarm
activities, etc.

15. Results
• Gap efficiencies

16. Results
• Efficiencies for adopters and nonadopters

17. Results
• Determinants of farmers’ efficiencies
Technical
efficiency
Allocative
efficiency
Economic
efficiency
Coeff
Std. Err
Coeff
Std. Err
Coeff
Std. Err
Agriculture
-0.7988***
0.1923
-0.0062
0.0285
-0.3403**
0.1702
Education
0.0734
0.0453
-0.0064
0.0076
0.1115**
0.0429
Extension
-0.1259**
0.0585
0.0151
0.0093
-0.1296**
0.0508
-0.0010
0.0017
-0.0005*
0.0002
0.0001
0.0015
Age

18. Results
• Impact of adoption of NERICA varieties efficiencies
Technical
Efficiency
Allocative
Efficiency
Economic
Efficiency
LATE
0.3568***
0.0048
0.2344***
LATE1
0.4306**
0.0031
0.2674***
LATE0
0.0549
0.0125
0.1112
PSB
0.0738*
-0.0017
0.0329
-0.0272**
-0.0026**
-0.0511***
F(5, 694)=8.93***
F(5, 565)=18.37***
LATE
Observed
Diffmo
Wald test
F(5, 1066)=8.07***

19. Conclusion and implications
• Adoption of NERICA increases technical efficiency
for potential and actual adopters
• The impact on economic efficient is smaller but also
significant on potential and actual adopters
• High inefficiency among both adopters and nonadopters of NERICA varieties
• Providing farmers with improved varieties should be
accompanied by training on both good agricultural
practices and farm manage tools

20. Thank you!
Merci!