PRODUCTIVITY AND WELFARE IMPACTS OF DUAL PURPOSE SWEETPOTATO VARIETIES’ ADOPTION AMONG SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN RWANDA

Abstract

The significant role of agriculture in the transformation of emerging economies has been well founded in the literature. This has contributed to the implementation of a number of intervention programs aimed at improving agricultural productivity and, subsequently, household welfare. However, the magnitude of the impact of adoption of any innovation, such as improved sweetpotato varieties developed for both as human food and livestock feed and hence called dual-purpose sweetpotato (DPS) varieties, is of critical concern. This paper estimates the potential impact of DPS varieties on productivity and household welfare (proxy by consumption expenditure per capita) using an endogenous regime-switching regression that corrects both observed and hidden endogeneities. Consistent with findings in many pieces of the literature, our study shows that adoption of DPS leads to significant productivity and welfare gains, and that farmers who did not adopt would have been better-of have they adopted. In addition, DPS adoption has heterogeneous effects among the adopters’ group that varies with characteristics such as membership of farmer groups and household size. There is, therefore, a need to target specific groups among the farming households. The results of the study also indicate that development practitioners should support the production and promotion of agricultural technologies to boost productivity and improve welfare, especially among rural households.