Impact of adoption of heat-stress tolerant maize hybrid on yield and profitability: Evidence from Terai region of Nepal

Abstract

Abiotic stresses (drought, heat) are one of the major impediments to enhancing the maize productivity of marginal farmers in the facet of climate change. The present study attempts to investigate the impact of heat-tolerant maize hybrid on yield and income in the Terai region of Nepal. This study uses cross-sectional farm household-level data collected in August 2021 from a randomly selected sample of 404 rural households. We used a doubly robust inverse probability weighted regression adjustment method to obtain reliable impact estimates. Adoption of heat-tolerant hybrid increases yields by 16% and income by 44% in the spring season (a stress condition). Overall, yield increases by 12%, net income by 31%, saving of 40% in seed costs, and per capita food expenditure increases by 8.50%. Hence a conducive environment must be created for scaling up heat-tolerant maize varieties to increase productivity, minimize risk, and transform of the maize sector.

Growth and Yield Responses of Zea mays to Different Granule Biofertilizer Applications

“…Maize (Zea mays L.) is an important agricultural commodity that plays a strategic role in the development of agriculture and the Indonesian economy, thus making it included in the sustainable food self-sufficiency policy program. The development of this commodity, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, is more on the supply of industrial raw materials, especially the animal feed industry which reaches 55 %, while for food consumption it is around 30 %, and the rest is for other industrial needs and seeds [1,2]. The use of maize for feed is more in demand by the feed industry because of its better nutritional content, high calories, and protein containing complete amino acids, besides that for livestock because the texture of maize is fresher than other feed ingredients animal feed production in 2020 grew by around 5 % to 6 % compared to the realization in 2019, with a volume reaching 21.53 × 10 6 t, up from the 2019 estimate which was set at 20.5 × 10 6 t [3][4][5][6].…”