Adoption and impacts of improved varieties and seed demand analysis

Abstract

There is very limited information about the national level adoption of improved wheat varieties in Morocco. With the exception of some estimates based on secondary data, the same is true for household, regional and national level seed use. Using a nationally representative sample of 1,230 farm households from 21 provinces distributed across 56 districts and 292 villages and a variety of methods including descriptive statistics, the Heckman selection model, duration analysis, propensity score matching and endogenous switching regression, this study attempted to provide: 1) accurate estimates of current national and provincial adoption levels of improved varieties with special attention to their release date; 2) analysis of factors influencing the decision and speed of adoption of improved wheat varieties; 3) estimates of impacts on livelihoods indicators particularly yield, wheat net income and wheat consumption; and 4) estimation of farm, provincial and national level seed demand.