Demand-Driven Technologies for Sustainable Maize ... - IITA

388Unexploited yield and profitability potentialsof improved varietal technologies: the case ofhybrid maize in Western EthiopiaA.D. AleneIITA, Ibadan, NigeriaAbstractIn view of the considerable potential for increasing food productionthrough the generation and use of new agricultural technology,many developing countries have invested in agricultural research andextension. However, the issue of whether the intended productiongains from new technologies have actually been realized by poorfarmers has received little or no attention. This paper used a stochasticfrontier effi ciency decomposition methodology to derive the technical,allocative, and economic effi ciency measures for a sample of hybridmaize producers in Western Ethiopia. The results revealed underexploitationof the potential of hybrid maize and indicated that farmerscould increase production, on average, by 26% if they all adoptedthe recommended management practices. Furthermore, adoptionof the recommended management practices coupled with optimumuse of inputs, especially fertilizer, would enable the farmers to reduceproduction costs by an average of 39%. Increased yields wouldlower per unit production cost and increase the profi tability of maizeproduction. This would in turn ensure sustainable use of improvedagricultural technologies. Education, provision of input credit, andtimely availability of critical inputs are positively and signifi cantly relatedto the effi ciency of hybrid maize production.RésuméAu vu du potentiel considérable nécessaire à l’augmentation dela production alimentaire à travers les générations et l’utilisationde nouvelles technologies agricoles, beaucoup de pays en voie dedéveloppement ont investi dans la recherche agricole et la vulgarisation.Cependant, la question de savoir si les gains ont réellement été réaliséspar les agriculteurs pauvres à partir de l’application des nouvellestechnologies, a reçu peu ou aucune attention. Cette étude utilise uneméthodologie de décomposition stochastique frontière d’effi cacité afi nde dériver les mesures d’effi cacité technique, locative, et économiquepour un échantillon de producteurs d’hybrides de maïs dansl’Ouest de l’Ethiopie. Les résultats ont révélé des sous-exploitations