Welfare gains from adoption of improved maize varieties among smallholder households in Uganda

Abstract

Despite a considerable increase in improved maize variety releases in Uganda, the proportion of households growing improved maize seed is still low. The study determined the welfare effect of adoption of improved maize varieties among farming households in Uganda. Four waves of the UNPS were used to construct a panel dataset with 15,432 observations. Descriptive statistics such as transition probabilities in adoption status were used. To examine the determinants of adoption of improved maize seed, a fixed effects logit was used. To evaluate the effect of adoption of improved maize seed on maize farmers’ welfare, particularly food availability, number of meals taken per day and total household income, the study deployed the bivariate probit, a two stage fixed effect Poisson regression and a random effects instrumental variable regression models respectively. Results revealed that the key determinants of adoption of improved maize seed in Uganda are; age and ownership of a non-farm business by the head, mobile phone ownership, male plot managers, access to extension services and area under maize. The impact of adoption of improved maize seed was found to be strongly statistically significantly positive for food availability, number of meals taken per day and total household income. Adoption of improved maize seed had a significant average treatment effect on food availability of 12% (p-value= 0.002). In addition, the number of meals taken per day were 35% (p-value= 0.078) higher among adopters as compared to non-adopters whereas adoption of improved maize seed increased total household income by 10% (p-value= 0.006). Therefore, non-farm businesses should be promoted among targeted households. Also systemic barriers faced by farmers in adopting improved seed should be addressed. ICT should be embraced by the government departments and other agencies that are engaged in promotion of improved maize seed as an avenue to send messages to farmers.