Effect of adoption of irrigation on rice yield in the municipality of Malanville, Benin By Gbetondji Melaine Armel Nonvide (PhD Candidate, University of Ghana) African Economic Conference "Feed Africa: Towards Agro-Allied Industrialization for Inclusive Growth". Abuja, 5-7 December , 2016

Outline of Presentation Motivation of the study Survey design & methods of analysis Factors affecting the decision to adopt irrigation Effect of adoption of irrigation on rice yield Conclusion & policy recommendation

Motivation of the study Agriculture: Major source of livelihood for about 70 % of the active population in Benin Benin agriculture is handicapped by climate change and weather variability. Irrigated agriculture is considered as one of the practices for controlling the effects of weather variability on crop yield (FAO, 2003; Carruthers et al., 1997; IWMI, 2013; Domenech, 2015).

Motivation of the study Consistent with this, Benin has developed several canal irrigation schemes since 1960, with the aim to improve food crop production especially rice. However, the objective of the rice policy to be self-sufficient in rice production by 2015 was not met. National rice production in 2015 is far below the target of 600, 000 MT needed for self-sufficiency.

Motivation of the study Increases in rice production is often driven by an increase in harvested area (correlation coefficient = 0.98). As arable land cannot be increased indefinitely, the alternative is to improve yield. Irrigation contributes to crop productivity improvement through reduced crop loss, multiple cropping, and expansion of crop land (Lipton et al., 2003; Hussain and Hanjra, 2004; Domenech, 2015).

Motivation of the study In this paper, the interest is focused on the following important question for irrigation policy: What informs farmers’ decision to adopt irrigation and how does adoption of irrigation contribute to an improvement in rice yield in Benin? The general objective of this paper is to identify the factors that influence the decision to adopt irrigation and its effects on rice yield in Benin.

Survey design & Methods of analysis Municipality of Malanville (Figure 1) Figure 1: Map of study area Table 1: Number of respondents per community Note: a = high rice growing area; b = low rice growing area

Survey design & Methods of Analysis Hekman model of selection: First stage: Estimation of a probit model Z i = σ+ δ X i + μ i (1) Where Z i is a latent variable. X i is the vector of farms and farmers characteristics, and institutional factors, Once the probability of adoption is predicted, the variable called the Mills ratio is calculated as follows: ⋋ i = ∅(ρ+ δ X i ) φ(ρ+ δ X i ) (2) Where, ∅ is the density function of a standard normal variable; 𝜑 is the cumulative distribution function of a standard normal distribution,

Survey design & Methods of Analysis Second stage: inclusion of the inverse Mills ratio into the yield equation as showing in equation (3): Y i = β 0 + β 1i X i + β 2i Z i + β 3 ⋋ i + μ i With E ( μ i ) = 0 (3) Where Y i is paddy rice yield in kg/ha, X i is the vector of farm and farmers characteristics, and institutional variables. Z i is a dummy variable with value 1 for irrigation adopters and 0 for non- adopters.

Variables included in the Heckman model of selection Table 2: Description of continuous variables Table 3: Description of categorical variables

Factors affecting the decision to adopt irrigation Table 4: Factors affecting the adoption of irrigation

Factors affecting the decision to adopt irrigation Variables that influence the decision to adopt irrigation include: Age of the respondent, gender, education, frequency of extension visit, credit access, market participation, distance from home to irrigation scheme, use of tractor and fertilizer. The results are in line with those found by Dillon (2011), Abdulai et al. (2011), Bacha et al. (2011), and Sinyolo et al. (2014).

Effect of adoption of irrigation on rice yield Table 5: Factors affecting rice yield: Heckman model results

Effect of adoption of irrigation on rice yield Table 6: Impact of irrigation adoption on rice yield: PSM results Outcome variable: Logarithm of rice yield Note: *** Significant at 1% ; values in parentheses are standard errors Matching method Number of rice farmers ATT t-test Treatment Control Nearest neighbor Kernel Epanechnikov Mahalanobis 133 150 540 0.63 (0.086) 0.64 (0.081) 0.70 (0.097) 7.32*** 7.90*** 7.21***

Effect of adoption of irrigation on rice yield The findings indicate that the percentage increase in rice yield due to irrigation adoption varies between 57 % and 70 %. This result is consistent with those found in the literature (Dillon, 2011; Huang et al., 2006; Kemah and Thiruchelvam, 2008) and also confirms the expectations that was placed in irrigation for contributing to yield improvement.

Conclusion & Policy implications Irrigation development is important for crop productivity improvement. The findings provides support for continuing investments to improve access to irrigation in Benin. Efforts to rehabilitate current irrigation schemes and develop other schemes should be intensified. While irrigation adoption is essential for increasing yield, it cannot achieve its goals alone. With complementary farm inputs and institutional support services such as extension visits, credit and market, the goal of productivity improvement could be achieved.

Conclusion & Policy implications Therefore, policy that will contribute to high crop yield should also promote intensive agriculture and provide institutional support services to the farmers.

Reference Abdulai, A., Owusu, V. C., and Bakang, J. E. A. (2011). Adoption of safer irrigation technologies and cropping patterns: Evidence from Southern Ghana. Ecological Economics, 70, 1415–1423 Bacha, D., Namara, R. E., Bogale, A., & Tesfaye, A. (2011). Impact of small-scale irrigation on household poverty: empirical evidence from the ambo district in Ethiopia. Irrig. and Drain, 60, 1–10 Carruthers, I., Rosegrant, M. W., and Seckler, D. (1997). Irrigation and food security in the 21st century. Irrigation and Drainage Systems, 11, 83–101. Dillon, A. (2011). Do Differences in the Scale of Irrigation Projects Generate Different Impacts on Poverty and Production? Journal of Agricultural Economics, 62 (2), 474–492 Domenech, L. (2015). Improving irrigation access to combat food insecurity and undernutrition: A review. Global Food Security, 6, 24–33 [FAO] Food and Agriculture Organization (2003). Preliminary review of the impact of irrigation on poverty with special emphasis on Asia. Land and Water Development Division Huang, Q., Rozelle, S., Huang, J., Lohmar, B., Wang, J. (2006). Irrigation, agricultural performance and poverty reduction in China. Food Policy, 31(1), 30-52 Hussain, I., & Hanjra, M. A. (2004). Irrigation and Poverty Alleviation: Review of the empirical evidence. Irrig. and Drain, 53, 1–15

Reference Kemah, T., and Thiruchelvam, S. (2008). An analysis of the effects of the scale of irrigation on Paddy production in Anuradhapura District, Sri Lanka. Tropical Agricultural research, 20, 269-278. Lipton, M., Litchfield, J., and Faurès, J-M. (2003). The effects of irrigation on poverty: a framework for analysis. Water Policy, 5, 413–427

Thank you