Multidisciplinary assessment of agricultural innovation and its impact: a case study of lowland rice variety WITA 9 in Côte d’Ivoire

Abstract

Information on comprehensive evaluation of agricultural innovations is often limited. This study provides an overview of multidisciplinary evaluation of a lowland rice variety, WITA 9 (released in Côte d'Ivoire in 1998), with respect to its agronomic performance, grain quality, resistance to diseases, adoption by farmers, impact on productivity and farmers' income, and marketability. WITA 9 had the highest paddy yield among the tested varieties including an international check (IR 64) and recently developed varieties adapted to this country. WITA 9 had a higher amylose content (26-28%) than others tested. This study confirmed its resistance to bacterial leaf blight, Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV), and rice blast. A household survey showed that the adoption rate was 24%, its paddy yield advantage was 0.7 t ha-1 , and its adoption increased farmer's income by US$ 91 ha-1 per season. A market study showed that consumers' willingness to pay was higher for WITA 9 than any other locally produced rice variety and comparable to imported rice in one of two markets. We conclude that WITA 9 is an ideal innovation for enhancing productivity and rice import substitution in Côte d'Ivoire. An effective seed delivery system and enhancing farmers' and consumers' awareness of this variety are vital for accelerating impact.

Moving toward rice self-sufficiency in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030: Lessons learned from 10 years of the Coalition for African Rice Development

“…What are the yield and area growth rates required to achieve rice self-sufficiency in SSA by the target date of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2030? Although the impact of technologies is frequently discussed in the literature ( Arouna et al, 2017 , Jiao and Schneeberger, 2017 , Kassie et al, 2011 , Saito et al, 2019 ), the impact assessment of policy measures is limited, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to estimate the impact of the CARD framework. In addition, while extensive literature exists on the separate application of the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model ( Ruby-Figueroa et al, 2017 , Sen et al, 2016 ) and counterfactual approach ( Arouna et al, 2017 , Manda et al, 2019 ), the combination of the two methods to assess the impact of policy is uncommon.…”

Does Credit Influence Fertilizer Intensification in Rice Farming? Empirical Evidence from Côte D’Ivoire

“…Thus, local paddy rice production must significantly increase in order to meet the increased rice demand for consumption. Côte d'Ivoire's paddy rice production is based on two production systems: the highland rice system (upland rice) and the lowland rice system (flooded rice and irrigated rice) accounted for 72% and 28% of the total rice area, respectively, in 2016 [3]. In upland rice farming (URF), rice is cultivated without soil surface flooding.…”

“…In terms of yields per hectare, a relevant number of studies carried out in the country have shown that the paddy rice productivity at the farm-level is still low in Côte d'Ivoire [1][2][3][4][5]. The national paddy yield is 2.3 t ha −1 for all paddy rice production systems combined [3], while the average yields per hectare in some sub-region countries such as Mali range from 5.6 t ha −1 to 6.7 t ha −1 [6]. Although paddy rice production increases over the years, this increase is less proportional than the area cultivated.…”

“…Recently, Kotchi et al [2] found that only 39% of rice farmers applied fertilizers in the Divo area, in the southwest of Côte d'Ivoire. Regarding improved seed adoption, Saito et al [3] reported a low rate (24%) of the adoption of the WITA 9 variety.…”

“…This concern is well established in the country's ongoing rice policy. Previous studies on paddy rice production in the country have mainly focused on the following aspects: the characterization of the different rice farming [1,4,10]; the adoption and extension of agricultural technologies [3,16,17]; the use of fertilizer [18] and its impact on yield [5,8]. This study attempts to give insight into the following question: Does credit allow Côte d'Ivoire's rice farmers intensify fertilizer utilization in paddy rice production?…”