yield

This article states that despite the growing attention to technology adoption in the economics literature, knowledge gaps remain regarding why some valuable technologies are rapidly adopted, while others are not. This paper contributes to our understanding of agricultural technology adoption by showing that a focus on yield gains may, in some contexts, be misguided. »

This magazine shares a collection of articles with lessons learned of the N2Africa project. The N2Africa project is a research project that aims to improve the quality and yields of grain legume crops and thereby strengthening the economic position of smallholder farmers. It does so by putting nitrogen fixation to work. »

This research report presents results of a search for policies and conditions that can help accelerate agricultural development in Africa. This development has been limited in many countries, as evinced by extreme low fertilizer use, low crop yields, poverty and high food insecurity. A hopeful tendency emerges from this study: African agricultural development is taking off in response to population growth, as is shown by the cereal yield and fertilizer use adoption trends in many countries. »

This research assessed the impact of the main factors contributing to yield improvement of potatoes: improved varieties, healthier seed, better stored seed, late blight disease control and fertilisation. It was shown that it is possible to double yields and economic returns under the growing conditions in Burundi when growers plant healthy pre-sprouted seed of a new variety and apply chemical fertilisers and fungicides. »

This paper contributes to the understanding of agricultural technology adoption by showing that a focus on yield gains may, in some contexts, be misguided. Results suggest that economic measures of returns may be more relevant than increases in yields in explaining technology adoption decisions. »

The grafting technology is largely being promoted under the Applied Research Fund project “Improved Resilience through Sustainable Production of Grafted Tomatoes in Uganda (IRESO)”. Grafting transforms low quality fruit trees into the high yielding commercial varieties. Many tropical fruit trees, including tomatoes, mango, avocado and orange, perform better when farmers merge good fruiting characteristics with »