Women are central to food production and maize is a dominant food staple in Sub-Saharan Africa, but published gender analyses of hybrid seed use in Sub-Saharan Africa are uncommon. Building on previous work, this paper tests the effects of headship definitions on hybrid seed use and explores the...

Spatial diversity indicators may serve policymakers as they seek to manage crop genetic diversity and externalities associated with diffusion of some genetically modified crops. This paper adapts ecological indices of spatial diversity to area distributions of modern wheat varieties in...

Zambian farmers have long experience with maize hybrids and input subsidies. The successful development and diffusion of improved maize seed in Zambia during the 1970s–80s was supported by government commitment to parastatal grain and seed marketing and subsidized provision of services to...

Bt maize in Kenya is promising biotechnology innovation for poor households. Econometric prediction from a trait-based model of variety adoption indicates that the choice of host variety has equity and efficiency implications related to heterogeneity in maize growing environments and pest...

Malian farmers have been cultivating millet and sorghum for millennia, but they are slow to adopt and develop modern varieties because it is difficult to observe the difference in yields in their fields, given the challenging local growing conditions. Farmer participatory approaches are...

A globally-recognized maize “success story” since the 1970s, Kenya’s first maize hybrid diffused faster than did hybrids in the U.S Corn Belt during the 1930s-1940s. Today, a hybrid released in 1986 still dominates on farms in Kenya, despite the dramatic increase in the number of hybrids,...

When farmers consume much of their grain output, end-use quality, in addition to standard production characteristics, affects farmers' seed choice and the economic returns to investment in crop breeding. Evidence from Malawi suggests that despite a lengthy research lag, emphasizing grain quality...

Genetic diversity in agricultural systems relies on both the supply of diversity through varieties produced by breeding programs, and the demand for that diversity, through farmers' usage of varieties. Variety choice by farmers is demonstrated through the mix of varieties that is grown in a...

In recent years, output on genetic diversity in the economic literature has included conceptual pieces on the definition and measurement of crop genetic diversity, methodologies for estimating its value, and efforts to analyze its contribution to productivity and stability. However, because...

Variety change and genetic diversity are important means of combating crop losses from pests and diseases in modern agricultural systems. Since the Green Revolution, genetic diversity among wheat varieties released in India has increased but variety change on farms continues to be slow. In this...