Adoption of drought-tolerant maize varieties and interrelated climate smart agricultural practices in Nigeria

Background In Sub-Saharan Africa, drought is one of the prevailing climatic conditions that has led to the modif‑
cation of improved seeds to be resilient enough to improve yield and increase farm households’ welfare. However,
like most climate-smart agricultural practices, the adoption of drought-tolerant maize varieties is low. This study
examines the simultaneous adoption decisions of drought tolerant maize varieties and other climate-smart agri‑
cultural practices such as intercropping, row-planting, inorganic fertiliser, manure, and residue incorporation using
nationally representative survey data from 1370 rural households in Nigeria. Multivariate Tobit and ordered pro‑
bit models are applied to assess the complementarity and or substitutability efect among CSAPs, the predictors
of the joint adoption, and the adoption intensity of CSAPs.
Results The results show a signifcant positive correlation between DTMVs and inorganic fertilisers, DTMVs and inter‑
cropping, and DTMVs and manure. However, the strongest adoption complementarity is found between DTMVs
and manure. The probability and the extent of adoption of CSAPs are commonly determined by household wealth,
access to loans, access to training in improved production practices, and membership in input supply and farm
cooperatives.
Conclusion The study suggests that the adoption of DTMVs has varying degrees of relations with other CSAPs
informing the need for policies aimed at increasing its adoption to consider existing CSAPs among maize farm
households.
Keywords Simultaneous equation, Drought, Drought-tolerant maize varieties, Multivariate tobit, Ordered probit,
Climate-smart agriculture
JEL Classifcation C30, Q16