R&D Innovation Adoption, Climatic Sensitivity, and Absorptive Ability Contribution for Agriculture TFP Growth in Pakistan

Abstract

Innovation adoptions in agriculture sustain high total factor productivity (TFP) growth and overcome a potential production gap, which is beneficial for food security. Research and development (R&D) innovation adoption in agriculture sector is dependent on producers’ willingness to adopt, knowledge capital spillovers, and financial capacity. This research aims to investigate the impact of R&D innovation adoption and climate factors on agriculture TFP growth in Pakistan. The annual time series data were collected from different sources for the period of 1972–2020. For measuring the agriculture TFP, this study adopted the Cobb Douglas and Translog production functions. To analyze the impact of R&D innovation adoption and climate change on agricultural productivity, the dynamic autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) and two-stage least square (TSLS) approaches were applied for regression analysis. The study outcomes highlight that the agricultural innovation adoption has a significantly positive impact on agriculture TFP growth in Pakistan with weak farmers’ absorptive ability. According to the results, agriculture tractors, innovative seed distribution, and fertilizer consumptions make a significantly positive contribution to agriculture TFP growth. Further, rainfall shows a positive and significant impact on agricultural productivity, where a moderate climate is beneficial for agricultural productivity. The estimation results contain policy suggestions for sustainable R&D adoption and agrarians’ absorptive ability. Based on the obtained results, it has been suggested that producers should focus on R&D innovation adoption to attain higher productivity. The government needs to emphasize innovative technology adoption, specifically to implement the extension services to increase farmers’ education, skills based training, and networking among the farmers to enhance their knowledge capital and absorptive ability. The farmers should also focus on the adoption of climate smart agriculture that can be achieved through the proper utilization of rainwater. For this purpose, the government needs to develop small community dams and large-scale dams for better use of rainwater harvesting.

Examining the impact of farm management practices on wheat production: Does agricultural investment matter?

“…Similar results are reported by Salim and Islam [ 21 ] for Australia, Tijani et al [ 43 ] for Nigeria, Dkhar and De [ 15 ] for Meghalaya, and Adetutu and Ajayi [ 44 ] for sub-Saharan Africa. In the context of Pakistan, the study conducted by Usman et al [ 45 ] focused on analysing the effects of R&D innovation and climatic variations on the overall factor productivity. The authors concluded that the adoption of agricultural R&D innovation has a notable and favourable impact on the agricultural productivity.…”

“…Specific to Pakistan, Usman, Hameed, Saboor, Almas and Hanif [ 31 ] examined the impact of R&D innovation and climatic changes on Pakistan's total factor productivity. Based on a time series of annual data from 1972 to 2020, the authors concluded that agricultural R&D innovation adoption had a significant positive effect on the total factor productivity of Pakistani farmers.…”

Economic Assessment of Food Legumes Breeding in China: Evidence Using a Provincial Level Dataset

“…From a global perspective, since the 19th century, scientific breeding has begun to rise, crop breeding has gradually developed into a relatively independent industry, and the degree of commercialization of seeds has been continuously improved. In the 1960s, in India, Pakistan, Mexico, and other regions of the world, the "green revolution" based on seed improvement technology to increase crop yield successfully verified the outstanding contribution of breeding technology to crop yield improvement, and further strengthened the following consensus: the public sector should bear an important responsibility in aquaculture [59,60]. However, cereal crops have been the focus of R&D expenditures in breeding programs, while edible legumes have been lacking in R&D expenditures [61].…”

Theoretical framework and methods for the analysis of the adoption-diffusion of innovations in agriculture: a bibliometric review

“…It includes research addressing aspects such as supportive public policies and the crucial role of extension agents, all within the framework of "sustainable agriculture, capacity building and training, or the role of gender in relation to the adoption of innovations (Bhatta et al, 2017;Branca & Perelli, 2020;Chatalova et al, 2017;Concu et al, 2020;Harun et al, 2021;Knierim et al, 2019;Mankad et al, 2017;Moglia et al, 2020;Ozcelik, 2016;Wedajo et al, 2019). Dissemination of knowledge to users is equally important (Harun et al, 2021;Rejesus & Jones, 2020;Usman et al, 2021). Indeed, technology adoption and sustainable agriculture are two concepts that are commonly linked in the scientific literature about the diffusion and adoption of agricultural innovations and have often been studied in developing countries (Onyancha & Onyango, 2020;Yamoah et al, 2020).…”