Impact of Improved Maize Varieties on Production Efficiency in Nigeria: Separating Technology from Managerial Gaps

Researchers and policymakers are concerned about the substantial increasing yield gap between sub-Saharan Africa rest of world. High-yielding improved varieties widely perceived as a means to close this gap. This study combines impact evaluation production analysis techniques, which mitigate estimation biases stemming from observed unobserved heterogeneity, estimate effects on maize productivity using unique, recent, nationally representative household survey. A linear endogenous treatment–effect model based matched sample obtained propensity score matching indicated that increased by 38.7%. Simultaneously, selectivity-corrected stochastic metafrontier approaches show advantage is mainly due technological change; however, technical efficiency similar those traditional varieties.