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Productivity and efficiency impacts of conservation tillage in northwest Indo-Gangetic Plains

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  • Krishna, Vijesh V.
  • Veettil, Prakashan C.

Abstract

This paper is a micro-level investigation into the farm-level productivity and efficiency impacts of zero tillage (ZT), a prominent resource conservation technology in agriculture. Often heralded as more sustainable than its conventional tillage alternatives, ZT has a number of positive environmental impacts. While the agronomic and economic potentials of the technology have been documented in the researcher-managed field trials, its impact on farmers’ field is not clearly understood in South Asia. In this article, the on-farm impacts of ZT wheat are assessed using primary data from the state of Haryana, India, employing production function and semi-parametric technical efficiency estimation methods. Significant cost-savings (14%) associated with the adoption of ZT in wheat cultivation is verified in this study. The functional analyses also show a pronounced productivity increase (5%), and a small but significant improvement in the technical efficiency of production (1%) due to relatively earlier sowing of ZT wheat. All production inputs are associated with insignificant elasticity coefficients in the production function, indicating that they are already used at the yield-maximizing level. Size of the landholding and remoteness of the village are the two major factors that simultaneously enhance wheat productivity and technical efficiency.

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  • Krishna, Vijesh V. & Veettil, Prakashan C., 2014. "Productivity and efficiency impacts of conservation tillage in northwest Indo-Gangetic Plains," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 126-138.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:127:y:2014:i:c:p:126-138
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2014.02.004
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    3. Khan, Md. Tajuddin & Kishore, Avinash & Pandey, Divya & Joshi, Pramod Kumar, 2016. "Using zero tillage to ameliorate yield losses from weather shocks: Evidence from panel data in Haryana, India:," IFPRI discussion papers 1562, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Ehiakpor, Dennis S. & Danso-Abbeam, Gideon & Dagunga, Gilbert & Ayambila, Sylvester N., 2019. "Impact of Zai technology on farmers’ welfare: Evidence from northern Ghana," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    5. Yigezu A. Yigezu & Tamer El‐Shater, 2021. "Socio‐economic impacts of zero and reduced tillage in wheat fields of the Moroccan drylands," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 52(4), pages 645-663, July.
    6. Aravindakshan, Sreejith & Rossi, Frederick J. & Krupnik, Timothy J., 2015. "What does benchmarking of wheat farmers practicing conservation tillage in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains tell us about energy use efficiency? An application of slack-based data envelopment analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(P1), pages 483-493.
    7. Lampach, Nicolas & To-The, Nguyen & Nguyen-Anh, Tuan, 2021. "Technical efficiency and the adoption of multiple agricultural technologies in the mountainous areas of Northern Vietnam," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    8. Singh, Pritpal & Singh, Gurdeep & Sodhi, G.P.S., 2020. "Energy and carbon footprints of wheat establishment following different rice residue management strategies vis-à-vis conventional tillage coupled with rice residue burning in north-western India," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    9. Paudel, Gokul P. & Chamberlin, Jordan & Nguyen, Trung Thanh, 2024. "Can sustainable intensification boost agricultural productivity and fertilizer use efficiency? Insights from wheat systems in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains," IAAE 2024 Conference, August 2-7, 2024, New Delhi, India 344263, International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE).
    10. Alwin Keil & Alwin D’souza & Andrew McDonald, 2015. "Zero-tillage as a pathway for sustainable wheat intensification in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains: does it work in farmers’ fields?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 7(5), pages 983-1001, October.
    11. Dsouza, Alwin & Mishra, Ashok. K., 2016. "Adoption and Abandonment of Conservation Technologies in Developing Economies: The Case of South Asia," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235243, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Luis A. De los Santos‐Montero & Boris E. Bravo‐Ureta, 2017. "Productivity effects and natural resource management: econometric evidence from POSAF‐II in Nicaragua," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(4), pages 220-233, November.
    13. D’Souza, Alwin & Mishra, Ashok K., 2018. "Adoption and Abandonment of Partial Conservation Technologies in Developing Economies: The Case of South Asia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 212-223.
    14. Alwin Keil & Alwin D’Souza & Andrew McDonald, 2016. "Growing the service economy for sustainable wheat intensification in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains: lessons from custom hiring services for zero-tillage," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(5), pages 1011-1028, October.

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