Abstract
The low application of inorganic fertilizer in Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the major constraints to achieving a Green Revolution in this region. In this study, we estimate the direct impact of the soil fertility on the maize yield and examine if the soil fertility increases the returns to inorganic and organic fertilizer based on comparative study of Kenya and Uganda. The results of the analyses indicate that the Kenyan maize farmers have applied the inorganic fertilizer roughly at the optimal level in one out of the two survey years on both the purchased high-yielding varieties and local/recycled maize varieties. In Uganda, even the low application of inorganic fertilizer is not profitable because of the high relative price. Regarding the returns to inorganic fertilizers on degraded soils, we do not find any increasing marginal returns of such fertilizers to the soil fertility.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Many farmers in Kenya and Uganda recycle purchased HYV maize after harvesting. We group the recycled HYV maize with the local maize as we explain later in Sect. 9.2.
- 3.
As we discuss in Sect. 9.3, we have only one soil observation per household. Thus, we assume that the soil carbon content is fixed across maize plots within a household and over time. Although it is not clear how long the soil carbon content is stable over time, it seems that the soil carbon content is more stable than other soil nutrients, such as nitrogen content.
- 4.
We do not include family labor in the model because family labor information was not sought in the second round of the surveys in both Kenya and Uganda. The family labor module was removed from the questionnaire in the second round because the quality of the family labor information was considered poor in the first round of the surveys. We implicitly assume that family labor input is adjusted optimally when the other input levels change. In the regression models, we estimate the household fixed effect models. Thus, as long as the family labor input remains at the same level, the omission of the family labor may not cause a serious bias.
- 5.
These two waves of surveys in Kenya were conducted by Tegemeo Institute, with financial and technical help from National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS).
- 6.
We estimated the determinants of the attrition from the surveys and found that none of the independent variables is significant at the 5% level (Appendix Table 9.A.1). Thus, we think that the attrition mostly occurred randomly and do not expect serious attrition biases.
- 7.
The surveys in Uganda were conducted jointly by Makarere University, Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development (FASID), and National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS).
- 8.
The attrition rate is less than 5%. None of the independent variables in the determinants of the attrition model is significant even at the 10% level (Appendix Table 9.A.1). Thus, we do not think the attrition biases serious.
- 9.
To obtain the nitrogen price, we have divided the DAP price by 0.18 because 100 kg of DAP contain 18 kg of nitrogen.
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Appendix
Appendix
Log of maize yield (kg/ha) by seed type
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Matsumoto, T., Yamano, T. (2013). Maize, Soil Fertility, and the Green Revolution in East Africa. In: Otsuka, K., Larson, D. (eds) An African Green Revolution. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5760-8_9
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