Faculty Publications

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Can minimum tillage enhance productivity? Evidence from smallholder farmers in Kenya
(Elsevier Ltd, 2019) Jena, P.R.
Conservation agriculture has been touted as a sustainable and productivity enhancing agricultural practice and increasingly being promoted in the developing countries. Previous research shows that this practice has increased agricultural productivity in the developed countries. This paper revolves around the central question – whether minimum tillage practice, which has succeeded in the developed countries under large scale farming, could bring out similar impacts for smallholder farmers in the developing countries. To examine this, plot level survey data are collected from a randomly selected sample households from the maize-dominant farming system of Kenya. Quasi experimental impact evaluation methods like endogenous switching regression has been applied to elucidate the impact of adoption of minimum tillage. Results show that adoption of minimum tillage has saved on labour by reducing the average total and female labour use in maize production thereby creating scope for undertaking other income generating activities. However, maize productivity is not found to have increased as an effect of minimum tillage adoption. Findings show that a major reason for such absence of yield impact is due to the fact that farmers adopting minimum tillage are often not practicing it together with other components of conservation agriculture. More importantly there is also serious irregularities in which other required supporting inputs, namely fertilizer and irrigation and agricultural management practices are used. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd
Effect of irrigation on farm efficiency in tribal villages of Eastern India
(Elsevier B.V., 2024) Kalli, R.; Jena, P.R.; Timilsina, R.R.; Rahut, D.B.; Sonobe, T.
Irrigation is an important adaptation strategy to cope with climate change which reduces vulnerability to water stress and improves crop productivity to feed millions. There is evidence of crop yield stagnation in many developing countries, and irrigation efficiency is claimed to increase crop productivity. Therefore, this paper uses data envelopment analysis to evaluate the farmer's productivity through technical efficiency (TE), i.e., the relationship between resource inputs and outputs of 513 paddy farmers in Eastern India. The results show that the farms are, on average operating at 14% TE, leaving a considerable scope to improve up to 86% to reach the optimal level. A significant difference is observed between irrigated and rain-fed paddy farmers, such that10% of the irrigated farms achieved efficiency scores over 40% and only 2% of rain-fed farms achieved the same. The tobit and beta fit regression models are estimated to find out the factors that influence the TE. Both surface water and groundwater sources of irrigation are used as predictors, along with other socio-demographic factors. Access to surface water irrigation is identified to be a significant determinant of farm efficiency, however, surface water irrigation, such as canal irrigation, is accessible only to farmers living on plain land. Farmers living on highlands need to explore other sources of irrigation practices, such as drip and sprinkler, that can increase TE and farm productivity. Therefore, this paper calls for government intervention to provide extensive training and facilities for these micro-irrigation practices. © 2023 The Authors

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