Impact of Technology Adoption through Dissemination Innovation Platforms (IP) on Yield, Food Security and Poverty: Evidence from Major Wheat Producing Regions of Ethiopia

Abstract

Despite the high wheat production potential of Ethiopia, domestic production has been unable to match domestic demand, forcing the country to be a net wheat importer. Several development activities have aimed at increasing improved technological adoption to boost wheat yield. These have used linear and top-down approaches to disseminate different technologies. Recently, a new approach known as a technology dissemination innovation platform (IP) has been tried in four of the major wheat producing regions by the Support to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops (SARD-SC) wheat project. Despite this, there has no empirical investigation of this approach. This paper details the result of investigating the impact of wheat technology adoption through a technology dissemination IP approach. It uses two period survey data collected from 506 sample households in 2012 and 2016. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) measures were used to investigate the impact of the intervention on food security and a simple poverty scorecard approach to assess the impact on poverty. Both propensity score matching and difference-in-difference econometric models were utilized to investigate the impact on wheat yields. The results reveal that the intervention brought about a significant and positive impact on food security, poverty and wheat yield. Adapting an innovation platform approach would, therefore, have a positive impact on yield increment, food security and poverty in implementing projects that have national importance. In addition, it is clear the current widely used, linear, top-down extension approach should be replaced by an approach that follows a technology innovation platform and which would provide a positive impact in these areas.