International Food Policy Research Institute
Fourth Floor Conference Facility
14 February 2007
The paper uses data from a stratified random sample of 1,500 rice farmers from Côte d’Ivoire to assess the impact of the adoption of Nerica on farm-level average yield of rice in Côte d’Ivoire. The paper uses the counterfactual outcomes framework to estimate the average treatment effect (ATE) and the local average treatment effect (LATE) of Nerica adoption on average rice yield, which are found to be not statistically different from zero. However, the results show the Impact of Nerica adoption on the average yield of rice to be heterogeneous with a sizable and statistically significant impact found for women farmers (+741 kg /ha). The results also suggest that a large number of farmers, especially those in the forest ecology, adopt the Nerica not because of its yield potential but because of its non-yield varietal attributes such as its short growth cycle, height, and consumption and grain qualities. The paper concludes that the yield impact of Nerica adoption depends on the socioeconomic and environmental conditions of farmers and their demands for the non-yield varietal attributes.