Impact of Adopting Improved Wheat Varieties on Household Income in Ethiopia

Adoption of improved agricultural technologies is a key strategy to improve production, productivity, food security, and poverty reduction. This study assessed the impact of adopting improved wheat on smallholders’ income in Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling method was followed to choose 540 sample households from Ethiopia's three main wheat-producing regions, namely the Oromia, the Amhara, and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNP) regions. The Propensity Score Matching (PSM) was employed to match 250 adopters and 290 non-adopters and assess the impact of improved wheat adoption on farm households’ income. The finding of the study confirmed that the adoption of improved wheat has a significant impact on household income. From the result, adopters earned more income of birr 26003.97 on average compared to non-adopters. This finding notifies the importance of adopting improved agricultural technologies in improving household income and livelihood. Therefore, harmonized agricultural technology generation, dissemination, and adoption are suggested to improve the income and livelihood of farm households.