This paper analyzes the effects of education on farm productivity in the case of growers of modern and traditional varieties of paddy in Odisha, Eastern India. Using an endogenous switching regression model, the study has found that a minimum threshold level of education is significantly...

After many years of neglect, there is a renewed interest in agricultural mechanization in Africa. Since government initiatives to promote mechanization, e.g., by importing and subsidizing tractors, are confronted with major governance challenges, private-sector initiatives offer a promising...

The gap between demand for and supply of food in Ethiopia can be reduced by improving farm productivity through the introduction of productivity-enhancing technologies. Conversely, in Ethiopia, the adoption rates of agricultural technologies remain below the expected levels. Hence, by using...

Considerable efforts have been devoted to understanding and developing technologies and practices that can help the agricultural sector reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The uptake of these "climate-friendly" technologies and practices, however,...

In many parts of the world, several decades of intensively applying Green Revolution technologies came at environmental costs, i.e. degraded water and soil quality as well as a loss of biodiversity. This has led to an increased interest in alternative farming systems such as organic farming,...

The finance sector has a key role to play in allowing agriculture to contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction. A rapidly evolving technological landscape is opening up new possibilities to target and price credit, to share risk, and to harness information technology to expand...

Recent technological advances both on the farm and in the lab have made farming more independent form nature than ever before. Arguably, the new and accessible technologies are helping us to better understand and "manage" nature and thus for first time in history farming is becoming as any other...

In this paper, we examine the impact of soil conservation adoption on gender-specific resource allocations within households in Zambia. The extension of funding of conservation farming (CF) training sessions in 2007 in specific districts in Zambia provides variation in CF takeup. We use this...

This discussion paper analyzes the economy-wide impact of a series of agricultural innovations in Malawi. Using an agricultural focused computable general equilibrium model disaggregated to reflect Malawi agro-ecological zones, we simulate three scenarios: one involving smallholders catching up...

In this study, we develop an economy wide model for Burkina Faso to assess the most promising opportunities for technological innovations to enhance maize production and productivity and their economywide effects. We simulate the implementation of two agricultural technological innovations using...