Adoption of Soil and Water Conservation Measures, its Impact on Yield
and Technical Efficiency: Insights from Drought Prone Areas of the
Karnataka, India
Abstract
This paper examines drivers of adoption of soil and water conservation
measure, and its impact on yield and technical efficiency of maize
cultivation using plot level data from drought prone area of Karnataka,
India. To account for selection bias from both observable and
unobservable factors, an endogenous switching regression model is
employed to estimate the impact of technology on yield and technical
inefficiency, which is estimated data envelope analysis-meta-frontier
approach. Results reveal that adoption of soil and water conservation
measure i.e. bunding leads to significant increase yield of maize by
30% and reduces technical inefficiency by 28%. Further, results reveal
that farmers’ access to credit, extension services, access to credit and
extension services not only has positive influence on the adoption of
soil and water conservation measures, but also associated with higher
technical efficiency. Overall, results point to need further scaling of
soil and water conservation measures for greater adoption, particularly
in drought prone areas. The paper concludes that policymakers and
development organizations should consider soil and water conservation as
main strategy improve the crop productivity, and thereby the
livelihoods, particularly of resource poor farmers.