Finally, Chapter 8 assessed and analysed the economic benefit of some selected ISM technologies from among farmers who participated in the on-farm trials and demonstrations across various communities in the study areas. Estimates of the maize-legume rotations and IRM were compared with estimated GM estimates of the farmer or local practices. Primary data was collected from 148 farmers who tried maize-legume rotations for two years and 50 farmers who tried IRM technologies. These farmers’ plots were monitored over the entire production cycle and input- output data was captured. The data was used to estimate income, average cost of production, and other financial analyses.
The remainder of this chapter presents the conclusions (section 10.2), followed by key policy recommendations (section 10.3), the implementation of which could promote ISM technology adoption and intensity of adoption towards eradication of Striga on farmers’ fields, and enhance household food security in northern Nigeria. Section 10.4 describes the limitations of the study and, finally, section 10.5 concludes the chapter with suggestions for further research.
technologies and adoption intensity would be biased. Therefore, the study applied a DH method to analyse these factors among maize-producing farmers. The results show that farmers with higher exogenous income and located further from extension offices are less likely to adopt ISM technologies. By implication, farmers with other means of income could afford to purchase nitrogenous fertilizer, such as urea, which is also very effective in ameliorating Striga damages but which the poor among them could not afford. In addition, households that are located very far from an extension office are less likely to get in touch with extension agents, which reduce or slow their chances of having access to newly introduced technology when compared to those closer to an extension office. Sampled households with higher farm income, polygamous households, past participation in on-farm trials, awareness of the technology, contact with extension agents and access to cash remittances are more likely to influence adoption of ISM technologies positively.
The implication is that any policy that will encourage the provision of these factors among smallholder farmers will ultimately encourage ISM technology adoption. Polygamous households, households with a larger family size, households that have access to cash remittances and those with larger farm sizes are more likely to intensify ISM technology adoption. Access to the financial market will offer the needed financial capitals to acquire ISM technologies that can withstand the threat of Striga.
Under the third objective of the study, the contributing impact of adoption of ISM technologies was estimated by using TE regression. This helped to estimate the impact of adoption of ISM technologies by controlling the role of selectivity bias on adoption decisions and production. Two major conclusions can be drawn from this study on the effect of ISM technology adoption on farmers’ productivity. Firstly, the adopters of ISM technologies have systematically different demographic characteristics in comparison to non-adopters. These dissimilarities could represent sources of variation in productivity between adopters and non-adopters. Therefore, estimation, using an OLS regression model with a dummy variable for adoption, cannot take the variation into account. Secondly, factors influencing the intensity of adoption are different from the factors influencing the decision to adopt, thus justifying the use of the DH approach. These results revealed that maize productivity under Striga infestation significantly increased after the adoption of ISM technologies in the PIAs, as well as in the NPIAs prior to project implementation. The adoption of ISM technologies also led to a significant increase in maize productivity under Striga infestation, which led to increased income per hectare. Therefore, the ISMA project intervention
provide farmers with access to production inputs and, especially Striga-resistant maize and improved legumes such as soya beans and cowpea, could potentially be a way forward to reduce poverty among smallholder farmers in Striga-infested areas of rural northern Nigeria. The results from the TE regression suggest that adopters of ISM technologies have significantly higher productivity (47% yield per hectare) than non-adopters, which could translate into higher farm income PAE, even after all the confounding factors are controlled. Findings from this study confirm the possible and direct role of ISM technology adoption in improving smallholder farm income, and eventually their livelihood, as a result of the increase in maize productivity obtained from the use of improved Striga management technology.
The study also investigated whether there are differences in farm income of sampled households that adopted ISM technologies and those that did not adopt in counterfactual situations. Because technology adoption is not random, the study used ESR to account for the heterogeneity effect in the decision to adopt or not to adopt, and also for unobservable characteristics of the sampled households to address the problem of endogeneity. The findings indicate that ISM technologies have a positive effect on farmers’ income, as measured PAE. However, the impact on farm income is smaller for households that did adopt ISM technologies (adopters) when compared to households that did not adopt (non-adopters) in the counterfactual situation that they adopted the technology.
This suggests, if non-adopters did adopt, they could likely have higher incomes than adopters could in the non-counterfactual situation. The results show that ISM technologies will be beneficial to all the households from the second (counterfactual) group, had all of them adopted. Also, the result from FGT shows that adopters are less poor the non-adopters regarding income PAE. Therefore, ISM technology adoption seems to be more important to poor households, those who have the least capability to generate minimum income, since it could help them bridge the income gap to non- poor households.
The results of the economic analysis of ISM technologies used by farmers prove that GMs, BCRs, and net benefit per capita for ISM technologies are positive across all locations. Moreover, the results demonstrate that NPB can be obtained from the use of ISC measures over farmer practice.
This suggests that farmers can recover costs incurred for adopting the new technologies and generate positive income balances. ISM technologies would occupy a central role in the design of
Striga-eradication campaign initiatives and sustainable management in maize fields and, therefore, it should be prioritised, particularly in Striga-infested areas of northern Nigeria.
Results from the selected on-farm trials suggest that continuous cultivation of maize on the same plot will increase Striga infestation and reduce maize yield. However, rotation of STR maize and grain legumes, such as improved soya bean, can reduce Striga infestation and increase maize grain yield, with a positive impact on farmers’ income and food security. Results from the rotation study can be useful in targeting smallholder farmers because of its low input nature. Legumes, especially cowpea and soya bean, enhances soil fertility, enriches the farmer's diet and does not require herbicides or pollute the environment.
The second aspect of the on-farm trial study focused on the three varieties of maize (local variety, Imazapyr-resistant hybrid 1 (IRM1), and Imazapyr-resistant hybrid 2 (IRM2)) that were used on the farmers’ Striga-infested fields. The study analysed the performance of IRM varieties across the two states. The potential of IRM regarding suppressing Striga parasitism and increasing yields and productivity in northern Nigeria exceed that of the farmer variety. Farmers in the villages surrounding the trial sites, who were at the sites for participatory on-farm evaluation during field days, saw the economic merit of the IRMs and showed interest in adopting the technology in the next season. The highest GMs were recorded for IRM1 in Kano and IRM2 in Bauchi, thus making them viable and potential options for adoption by farmers in northern Nigeria. Results from the dominance, residual and marginal analyses gave higher values regarding investment portfolios.
IRM hybrid technology will, therefore, be of paramount importance in the strategic plan to eradicate Striga in maize fields, meaning that it should be given the due priority in northern Nigeria.
These results would be most useful and effective in policy designs for sustainable Striga management in Africa. Public policies, non-governmental organisations and community-based organisation interventions can play a major part in helping farmers adopt ISM technologies. The facilitation of access to extension, establishing on-farm trials and conducting field days are of great importance in defining the execution of ISM for sustainable development in Africa, which could translate into more food security for households, irrespective of their unobservable characteristics.
In addition, the accessibility of information on ISM technologies may increase farmers’
consciousness and ability to manage Striga. Extension services is the backbone of agricultural education and information, for example, delivering information on the cereal-legume rotation practice that can enhance crop productivity gains and trigger suicide germination of Striga, resulting in a reduction of Striga seed banks on farms.