The Sustainability Of Project Outcomes From Farmer-Led Dissemination Of High-Yielding Groundnut Rosette Disease Resistant Groundnut Varieties

The major objective of this study is to evaluate the adoption of groundnut varieties that are high yielding, drought tolerant, and groundnut rosette disease (GRD) resistant in eastern Uganda. In particular, this study examines differences in adoption and farm-level productivity associated with participation in the Appropriate Technology Uganda (ATU) seed dissemination project during the early 2000s. We are particularly interested in the sustainability of the project outcomes 10-years after the end of the original intervention. The impact of the ATU intervention is examined with respect to increased productivity (higher expected yields) and risk-reduction (improved disease resistance and drought tolerance). We find that participating farmers allocated 21% more of their available land to improved groundnut varieties. The results also show that, for improved varieties, beneficiaries produce 32% higher yields than their non-participating neighbors, and 55% higher yields relative to non-neighbor controls. This implies that the project led to significant increases in profitability for participating farmers. In addition, we observe significant spillover effects from the project, which is clearly revealed by the yield difference between non-participating neighboring households and non-neighbor controls. These results imply that project beneficiaries transferred some benefits to the neighbor control group over the course of the 10-year period following the project. This is an important result suggesting that farmer-led programs offer additional advantages to developing communities and may provide a cost-effective means of information and technology dissemination.