Impacts of improved agricultural technologies on food security and child nutrition in rural Ethiopia

Abstract

New agricultural technologies and improved practices play a key role in increasing agricultural production and productivity, as well as improving national food security and overall social well-being. A large body of empirical literature shows how different technologies and improved practices can affect welfare indicators. However, rigorous evidence on the food security and nutritional implications of these technologies remains scarce in general and particularly in developing regions such as sub-Saharan Africa. This study uses panel data and adopts a fixed-effects approach as the main analysis method. Propensity score matching and endogenous treatment effects techniques are also used to test robustness and reduce selection bias in the estimation process. Thus, this study examines the relationship between adoption and nutrition, which has received little attention in most previous studies, and evaluates the impacts of three improved agricultural technologies (row planting, high-yielding seed varieties, and chemical fertilizers) on household food security and child nutrition. The results of the study show that the adoption of these technologies had a significant impact on both per capita consumption expenditure and child nutrition. In addition, the results of the differential impact analysis confirmed that impacts differed across the different segments of the households (quartiles based on area under improved technology and gender). We, thus, recommend the use of advanced agricultural technologies in combination (multiple types) rather than as separate technologies, and relevant institutions should promote the combination of advanced agricultural technologies, and the need for continued and large-scale public and private investment in the sector to address major development challenges. Finally, we note that the results from the current study have a broad and generic value that can be applied to a range of related cases in other developing countries.