Participatory Research Improves Maize Production Efficiency in Hills of Nepal

摘要

Maize production growth in the hills of Nepal has been slow due to the low level-of adoption of modern technology such as fertilizers and high yielding varieties. The Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP) was initiated in 1999 with the goal of improving livelihoods of farmers through increased maize production efficiency. A total of 192 farmers selected from the eastern, central and western hills of Nepal were surveyed to estimate the impact of activities of the HMRP. The stochastic frontier production function was used to estimate the technical efficiency of maize production. The results indicate that farmers in outreach sites produde more grain per unit of land with higher technical efficiency. The average maize yield of outreach sites was 1.4t/ha compared to 1.2t/ha of non-outreach sites. The average technical efficiency of the farmers in outreach sites was 78% as compared to about 72% in non-outreach sites. Lower variation in technical efficiency was also recorded among the farmers in outreach sites. This study suggests that participatory research in different microclimatic regions helps farmers to understand and adopt improved technologies and management practices, and ultimately, improve their productivity and production efficiency.