Identifying the appropriate germplasm to be improved is a key component of any participatory breeding effort because of its implications for impacts on social welfare and genetic diversity. This paper describes a method developed to select a subset of 17 populations for a participatory breeding...

Research has demonstrated that commercializing smallholder agricultural production is one of the effective ways to boost farmer incomes, employ labor, and stimulate rural economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, but this differs by commodity. We use panel data covering over a decade to estimate output...

Maize dominates as a staple food in Zambia, where the government has for many years promoted hybrid seed use in order to enhance the food self-sufficiency of poor rural families. Despite the policy importance of household nutrition in Zambia, we are not aware of any recent analyses that have...

This paper explores the impacts of hybrid maize adoption on the welfare of farming households in Kenya. We use a four-year panel dataset to estimate the effects of hybrid seed use on four indicators of household welfare, namely, income, assets, inequality and poverty. Results show that use of...

The successful development and diffusion of improved maize seed in Zambia during the 1970s–80s was a major achievement of African agriculture but was predicated on a government commitment to parastatal grain and seed marketing, the provision of services to maize growers, and a pan-territorial...

Bt maize in Kenya is promising biotechnology innovation for poor households. Econometric prediction from a trait-based model of variety adoption indicates that the choice of host variety has equity and efficiency implications related to heterogeneity in maize growing environments and pest...