IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/yaleeg/143826.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Profitability of Fertilizer: Experimental Evidence from Female Rice Farmers in Mali

Author

Listed:
  • Beaman, Lori
  • Karlan, Dean S.
  • Udry, Christopher R.
  • Thuysbaert, Bram

Abstract

We conducted an experiment providing fertilizer grants to female rice farmers in Mali. We found that women who received fertilizer used both more fertilizer and more complementary inputs such as herbicides and hired labor. This shows that farmers respond to an increase in one input by re-optimizing other inputs. Second, while the increase in inputs led to a considerable increase in output, we found no evidence that profits increased. Our results suggest that fertilizer's impact on profits is small compared to other sources of variation. This may make it difficult for farmers to learn about the returns to fertilizer.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Beaman, Lori & Karlan, Dean S. & Udry, Christopher R. & Thuysbaert, Bram, 2013. "Profitability of Fertilizer: Experimental Evidence from Female Rice Farmers in Mali," Center Discussion Papers 143826, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:yaleeg:143826
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.143826
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/143826/files/cdp1020.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.143826?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Esther Duflo & Michael Kremer & Jonathan Robinson, 2011. "Nudging Farmers to Use Fertilizer: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Kenya," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2350-2390, October.
    2. Esther Duflo & Michael Kremer & Jonathan Robinson, 2008. "How High Are Rates of Return to Fertilizer? Evidence from Field Experiments in Kenya," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 482-488, May.
    3. Tavneet Suri, 2011. "Selection and Comparative Advantage in Technology Adoption," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(1), pages 159-209, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Keiko Fukumori & Ayumi Arai & Tomoya Matsumoto, 2022. "Risk Management for Smallholder Farmers: An Empirical Study on the Adoption of Weather-Index Crop Insurance in Rural Kenya," Working Papers 230, JICA Research Institute.
    2. Sheahan, Megan & Black, Roy & Jayne, T.S., 2013. "Are Kenyan farmers under-utilizing fertilizer? Implications for input intensification strategies and research," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 39-52.
    3. Sheahan, Megan & Black, Roy & Jayne, Thomas S., 2012. "Are Farmers Under-Utilizing Fertilizer? Evidence from Kenya," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126739, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Terrance Hurley & Jawoo Koo & Kindie Tesfaye, 2018. "Weather risk: how does it change the yield benefits of nitrogen fertilizer and improved maize varieties in sub‐Saharan Africa?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(6), pages 711-723, November.
    5. Tsakas, Nikolas, 2017. "Diffusion by imitation: The importance of targeting agents," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 118-151.
    6. Enrico Biffis & Erik Chavez & Alexis Louaas & Pierre Picard, 2022. "Parametric insurance and technology adoption in developing countries," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 47(1), pages 7-44, March.
    7. Tristan Le Cotty & Elodie Maître d’Hôtel & Raphael Soubeyran & Julie Subervie, 2018. "Linking Risk Aversion, Time Preference and Fertiliser Use in Burkina Faso," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(11), pages 1991-2006, November.
    8. Beg, Sabrin & Islam, Mahnaz & Rahman, Khandker Wahedur, 2024. "Information and behavior: Evidence from fertilizer quantity recommendations in Bangladesh," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    9. Kibrom A. Abay & Tesfamicheal Wossen & Jordan Chamberlin, 2023. "Mismeasurement and efficiency estimates: Evidence from smallholder survey data in Africa," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(2), pages 413-434, June.
    10. Beaman, Lori & Karlan, Dean & Thuysbaert, Bram & Udry, Christopher, 2013. "Probability of Fertilizer: Experimental Evidence from Female Rice Farmers in Mali," Working Papers 111, Yale University, Department of Economics.
    11. Michelson, Hope & Fairbairn, Anna & Ellison, Brenna & Maertens, Annemie & Manyong, Victor, 2021. "Misperceived quality: Fertilizer in Tanzania," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    12. Sheremenko, Ganna & Magnan, Nicholas, 2015. "Gender-specific Risk Preferences and Fertilizer Use in Kenyan Farming Households," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205766, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Sheahan, Megan & Black, Roy & Jayne, Thomas S., 2012. "What is the Scope for Increased Fertilizer Use in Kenya?," Food Security International Development Working Papers 135283, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    14. Maolong Chen & Chaoran Hu & Robert J. Myers, 2022. "Understanding transient technology use among smallholder farmers in Africa: A dynamic programming approach," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(S1), pages 91-107, November.
    15. Porteous, Obie, 2020. "Trade and agricultural technology adoption: Evidence from Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    16. Pieter Rutsaert & Jordan Chamberlin & Kevin Ong’are Oluoch & Victor Ochieng Kitoto & Jason Donovan, 2021. "The geography of agricultural input markets in rural Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(6), pages 1379-1391, December.
    17. Esther Gehrke, 2019. "An Employment Guarantee as Risk Insurance? Assessing the Effects of the NREGS on Agricultural Production Decisions," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 33(2), pages 413-435.
    18. Ayalew, Hailemariam & Chamberlin, Jordan & Newman, Carol, 2022. "Site-specific agronomic information and technology adoption: A field experiment from Ethiopia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    19. Wouter Zant, 2014. "Do Organic Inputs in African Subsistence Agriculture Raise Productivity? Evidence from Plot Data of Malawi Household Surveys," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 14-114/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    20. Matsumoto, Tomoya, 2014. "Disseminating new farming practices among small scale farmers: An experimental intervention in Uganda," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 43-74.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Agricultural Finance; Community/Rural/Urban Development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q16 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - R&D; Agricultural Technology; Biofuels; Agricultural Extension Services

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:yaleeg:143826. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/egyalus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.