TY - JOUR
T1 - The Impact of Agricultural Extension Service on the Uptake of Various Agricultural Technologies in Ethiopia
AU - Mesfin, Hiwot
AU - Tessema, Yohannis M.
AU - Tirivayi, Nyasha
AU - Nillesen, Eleonora
N1 - Funding Information:
1. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from CODESRIA’s Meaning Making Research Initiative. We are thankful to the World Bank for making the data publicly available. We are also grateful to the four internal and two external reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from CODESRIA’s Meaning Making Research Initiative. We are thankful to the World Bank for making the data publicly available. We are also grateful to the four internal and two external reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Funding Information:
During the Imperial regime, the extension approach (known as the comprehensive package project) was funded mainly by the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA). This purpose of the project was the overall socioeconomic development of smallholder farmers, by providing improved technologies, mechanisation and demonstrations, and teaching planning and marketing skills along with price stabilisation policies. However, since land rights during that period were reserved for landlords, the project failed to improve the livelihood of most of the poor farmers, who were tenants on the land. Besides, this programme was very expensive. It was replaced by the Minimum Package Project (MPP-I), which focused on reaching out to as many farmers as possible with the ‘minimum’ essential agricultural services. Unfortunately, this project also failed because of the landlord-tenant land tenure system in place during that period (Kassa 2003).
Publisher Copyright:
© Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, 2022.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - Many governments provide a free agricultural extension service that aims to link farmers to scientific knowledge and yield-enhancing technologies. However, the impact of this service in achieving its aim has been unclear. This study focuses on Ethiopia to explore the impact of the agricultural extension service on farmers’ utilisation of various agricultural technologies. Using a large and representative data set, the study applies an instrumental variable method, along with other robustness checks, and finds that the impact of the extension service is heterogeneous to the type of farm technologies. The study finds that the agricultural extension service has a positive impact on chemical fertiliser and crop rotation use, but a negative impact on organic fertiliser use, and no impact on pesticide, herbicide and fungicide use. Based on these results, policy-makers interested in promoting the utilisation of organic fertiliser need to retrain the extension agents and redirect their efforts towards recommending organic fertilisers as much as they do chemical fertilisers and crop rotation.
AB - Many governments provide a free agricultural extension service that aims to link farmers to scientific knowledge and yield-enhancing technologies. However, the impact of this service in achieving its aim has been unclear. This study focuses on Ethiopia to explore the impact of the agricultural extension service on farmers’ utilisation of various agricultural technologies. Using a large and representative data set, the study applies an instrumental variable method, along with other robustness checks, and finds that the impact of the extension service is heterogeneous to the type of farm technologies. The study finds that the agricultural extension service has a positive impact on chemical fertiliser and crop rotation use, but a negative impact on organic fertiliser use, and no impact on pesticide, herbicide and fungicide use. Based on these results, policy-makers interested in promoting the utilisation of organic fertiliser need to retrain the extension agents and redirect their efforts towards recommending organic fertilisers as much as they do chemical fertilisers and crop rotation.
KW - agricultural extension
KW - agricultural inputs
KW - Ethiopia
KW - impact
KW - instrumental variable
U2 - 10.57054/ad.v47i4.2978
DO - 10.57054/ad.v47i4.2978
M3 - Article
SN - 0850-3907
VL - 47
SP - 77
EP - 105
JO - Africa Development/Afrique et Developpement
JF - Africa Development/Afrique et Developpement
IS - 4
ER -