Ten striking facts about agricultural input use in Sub-Saharan Africa

“The gains from diffusion of these inputs were enjoyed broadly, including to consumers (Evenson and Gollin, 2003), helping to stimulate historically unprecedented economic growth and poverty reduction in east and southeast Asia (David and Otsuka, 1994).”

“30% of attainable yields as collected from sources around the world (Oerke and Dehne, 2004).”

“…a middle class, increased access to market and other information through cell phones, and transformation of some food marketing channels—may have changed on-farm incentives and resulted in updates to farm management practices, including modern input use (e.g., Reardon et al., 2009; Tiffen, 2003).”

“The inverse (negative) relationship between farm size and productivity is a well-studied and fairly entrenched phenomenon in the agricultural development literature (e.g., Carter, 1984; Feder, 1985; Barrett et al., 2010).”

“What is less well-documented with data from farmers’ fields is the relationship between input use intensity and farm size (important exceptions include Croppenstedt et al., 2003; Doss, 2003).”

“Most obviously, several governments have recently reinstated or revitalized agricultural input subsidy schemes aimed at promoting access to chemical fertilizers and improved seeds (Minot and Benson, 2009), with variable success (Jayne and Rashid, 2013).”

“The entire integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) paradigm is built around the belief that inorganic and organic fertilizer should be used together to improve both the nutrient availability and absorption capacity of the soil (Place et al., 2003; Vanlauwe et al., 2010, 2011).”

“The inverse (negative) relationship between farm size and productivity is a well-studied and fairly entrenched phenomenon in the agricultural development literature (e.g., Carter, 1984; Feder, 1985; Barrett et al., 2010).”

“Consistent with the findings of Barrett et al. (2010), the striking withinhousehold inverse relationship raises novel puzzles about farmers’ behaviors and the input productivity implications that have yet to draw much research attention.”

“Even within a given farm, evidence suggests that productivity can differ immensely between plots (Tittonell et al., 2005), so too, then we would expect soil fertility status also to vary.”

“This finding mirrors Williamson et al. (2008), who observed a very high rate of pesticide use not just on cash crops and vegetables, but also on staple crops.”

“The entire integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) paradigm is built around the belief that inorganic and organic fertilizer should be used together to improve both the nutrient availability and absorption capacity of the soil (Place et al., 2003; Vanlauwe et al., 2010, 2011).”

“Prior research in Asia established prospective environmental and human health effects of agrochemicals use (e.g., Antle and Pingali, 1994), which must be weighed against the potential productivity benefits of non-trivial agro-chemicals use in African agriculture.”

“Because mechanization is a process and may express itself through the utilization of different technologies across different cultivating environments (Pingali et al., 1987), the LSMS-ISA surveys can only provide a picture of current use or ownership of inputs associated with mechanization.”

“…alongside related work on the correlates with intensification patterns in the region (Binswanger-Mkhize and Savastano, 2014), labor productivity differentials (McCullough, 2015) as potentially driven by input use, and the existence of multiple market failures (Dillon and Barrett, 2014).”

“This echoes other findings of decreasing tractor use over time by Pingali (2007).”

“Using the same LSMS-ISA data, Kaminski and Christiaensen (2014) find that 63% of maize growing households in Uganda, 49% in Tanzania, and 11% in Malawi used some form of spraying or smoking of their crops while in storage, suggesting that on-field usage does not exhaust the full set of possible…”

“For example, some modern seed varieties are bred to respond better when paired with inorganic fertilizer (Ellis, 1992; Nyangena and Juma, 2014).”

“We then calculate Shapley values, which decompose the explained variance (measured by R(2)) of those regressions into contributions over particular groups of regressors (Huettner and Sunder, 2012), in other words the mean marginal contribution of each variable or group of variables to the overall regression model R(2).”

“Moreover, household perceptions of soil quality may influence fertilizer application rates (Marenya and Barrett, 2009) and be influenced, in turn, by previously observed crop yields (Marenya et al., 2008).”

“Meanwhile, factors external to agricultural policy—such as record high international food prices, urbanization, rapid growth of a middle class, increased access to market and other information through cell phones, and transformation of some food marketing channels—may have changed on-farm incentives and resulted in up…”

“Our findings may be best conceptualized alongside related work on the correlates with intensification patterns in the region (Binswanger-Mkhize and Savastano, 2014), labor productivity differentials (McCullough, 2015) as potentially driven by input use, and the existence of multiple market failures…”

“In Sheahan and Barrett (2014) we utilized one cross section of LSMS-ISA data collected between 2010 and 2012 in each of six countries (Niger, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda), including over 22,000 cultivating households and 62,000 agricultural plots, to produce a large number of…”

“…alongside related work on the correlates with intensification patterns in the region (Binswanger-Mkhize and Savastano, 2014), labor productivity differentials (McCullough, 2015) as potentially driven by input use, and the existence of multiple market failures (Dillon and Barrett, 2014).”

“In SSA specifically, Fuglie and Rada (2013) report that average yields on irrigated fields are 90% higher than on nearby rainfed fields.”

“Analysis of the marginal costs and benefits of using modern inputs (e.g., Sheahan et al., 2013 on Kenya and Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2015 on Nigeria) – infeasible in the descriptive, cross-sectional work undertaken here – would help determine whether this variation corresponds with efficient…”

“Using global data to study total factor productivity, Fuglie (2008) finds that irrigated land is twice as productive as rainfed land after controlling for other factors.”

“What is less well-documented with data from farmers’ fields is the relationship between input use intensity and farm size (important exceptions include Croppenstedt et al., 2003; Doss, 2003).”

“…2010/ 11, Tanzania 2010/11, Uganda 2010/11. and mechanized equipment, this suggests that the rental market for both is fairly substantial in Nigeria, where the government has dedicated significant resources to the promotion of agricultural mechanization in recent years (Takeshima et al., 2013).”

“…important characteristic of the operating environment that should affect input use decisions is soil quality since, for example, it is well known that the responsiveness of crops to fertilizer application depends on the quality and fertility of the soil (e.g., Zingore et al., 2010; Zingore, 2011).”

“Asia and Latin America enjoyed tremendous increases in agricultural productivity in a relatively short period of time through rapid and widespread uptake of yield-enhancing modern agricultural inputs (Johnson et al., 2003).”

“Irrigation and mechanization technologies have received far less policy attention, potentially translating into stagnation or even the reversal of prior progress in expanding their use (Mrema et al., 2008; Van Koppen, 2003).”

“…of these schemes and these outcomes, particularly given mixed evidence on the performance of input subsidy programs across the region (e.g., Ricker-Gilbert et al., 2013). nearly 10%, and household socio-economic variables less than 4%.16 It is perhaps surprising, given other findings on…”

“…to lower access to improved inputs (e.g., Djurfeldt et al., 2013; FAO, 2011), although a range of country and within-country specific factors remain similarly instrumental in perpetuating this gap (Kilic et al., 2015, as well as the entire special issue of Agricultural Economics in May 2015).”

“Relative to the awareness resulting from these subsidy programs, irrigation and mechanization have received far less attention, with a few notable exceptions (Houssou et al. 2013; Takeshima, Nin-Pratt, Diao 2013).”

“Application rates are highest in Malawi and Nigeria, both with government input subsidy programs, and Ethiopia, where the government sets (and subsidizes) fertilizer prices but does not consider it a formal subsidy programme (Rashid et al., 2013).”

“…that lower levels of productivity and income among female-headed households can be partially attributed to lower access to improved inputs (e.g., Djurfeldt et al., 2013; FAO, 2011), although a range of country and within-country specific factors remain similarly instrumental in perpetuating…”

“Gianessi and Williams (2011) contend that herbicide use, in particular, remains a major unexploited means of increasing yields and saving labor on SSA farms.”

“For example, Matsumoto and Yamano (2011) find that having access to fertilizer credit increases teff yields by 37% in Ethiopia.”

“Analysis of the marginal costs and benefits of using modern inputs (e.g., Sheahan et al., 2013 on Kenya and Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2015 on Nigeria) – infeasible in the descriptive, cross-sectional work undertaken here – would help determine whether this variation corresponds with efficient…”

“Moreover, household perceptions of soil quality may influence fertilizer application rates (Marenya and Barrett, 2009) and be influenced, in turn, by previously observed crop yields (Marenya et al., 2008).”

“Irrigation systems help to secure necessary soil moisture for efficient inorganic fertilizer use and improved seed varietal growth (Yilma and Berger, 2006).”

“Particularly given evidence of low levels of paired inputs with known complementarity gains in SSA farming (Sheahan and Barrett, 2017), reallocation of resources already on-farm could lead to productivity gains without the use of additional inputs.”