Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Boughton, Duncan

Frahan, Bruno Henry de

English

Research Papers in Economics

Page 1
POLICY SYNTHESIS
for USAID - Bureau for Africa
Office of Sustainable Development
Number 25 October 1996
HOW NON-RESEARCH INVESTMENTS AFFECT
RESEARCH IMPACT: THE CASE OF MAIZE
TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION IN SOUTHERN MALI
By
Duncan Boughton and Bruno Henry de Frahan
Food Security II Cooperative Agreement between U.S. Agency for International Development, Global Bureau, Economic Growth Center,
Office of Agriculture and Food Security and Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University 
BACKGROUND: Maize is Mali’s most rapidly
growing coarse grain subsector. Historically,
though, maize has been a minor part of the
Malian agricultural research program.  The
initiative to promote improved maize varieties
was instead taken by the cotton parastatal, the
Compagnie Malienne pour le Développement des
Textiles (CMDT), in response to chronic food
deficits during the mid-1970s.  The CMDT
promoted a sole-cropped maize package
consisting of an improved local variety, identified
during the period of the colonial administration,
and a set of husbandry practices based on FINDINGS: The estimated economic rate of
research  findings  generated  in  other  West  African return (ROR) to investment in maize research
countries. Additional varieties were released over and extension in southern Mali over the period
time, including a streak-resistant variety from 1969-90 is 135%.  The ROR measures the
IITA. profitability of an investment; an investment is
OBJECTIVES: This study addresses two key
questions: (1)  what is the profitability, or rate of
return (ROR), to investments in maize research
and diffusion at the farm and national levels; and
(2) what factors have encouraged and constrained
the impact of maize investments?  Farm-level
impacts were assessed by developing financial
crop budgets for recommendation domains in two
zones served by different rural development
agencies, CMDT and Opération Haute Vallée
(OHV).  Once the farm-level impacts were
determined, the economic impact of maize
technology development and extension was
estimated through cost-benefit analysis.
Economic prices were applied to the crop
enterprise budgets, then net benefits were
aggregated over the area of improved maize
cultivated over time.  Costs were estimated by
examining the historical expenditures on maize
made by the Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER),
OHV, and CMDT.
considered profitable if the ROR equals or
exceeds the opportunity cost of capital (in West
Africa, this is frequently assumed to be 10%).
Thus, maize investments in Mali were extremely
profitable.  The high rate can be attributed to low
research costs (since much of the technical
package was borrowed from research conducted
elsewhere in West Africa), and the high economic
value of maize as an import substitute.
Sensitivity analysis indicates that the ROR is
robust with respect to adverse changes in 
FS II Policy Synthesis No. 25 
Page 2
Figure 1.  Adoption of Improved Maize in Mali’s CMDT
and OHV Zones assumptions concerning overvaluation of the
exchange rate, research costs, extension costs,
and area of improved maize.  It is moderately
sensitive to price and yield reductions.
INFLUENCE OF NON-RESEARCH
INVESTMENTS ON TECHNOLOGY
ADOPTION:  Adoption of the improved maize
package was particularly rapid during the period
1980-86, when an attractive guaranteed price
was offered and extension activities were
reinforced by a maize project that included the
establishment of a seed multiplication program. 
The impact of these complementary non-research
investments on adoption is clearly reflected in
Fig. 1.  Fig. 1 shows  adoption curves from two
regions that are agroecologically similar, but
have different physical infrastructure,
organizations and human capital bases.  In the
CMDT areas,   farmers had a cash surplus from
their cotton sales that allowed them to mechanize
and develop their farming systems.  When
authority to buy maize was transferred to rural
development agencies, CMDT was easily able to
extend the integrated production, input and
product marketing services already established
for cotton to maize.  By contrast, the other rural
development agency in southern Mali, OHV, did
not have an integrated technology development
and service program in place, and farming
systems are considerably less mechanized than in
the cotton areas of CMDT.  
Although CMDT’s approach was effective in
terms of boosting adoption rates, it was not
financially sustainable.  It required high levels of
subsidies from the national grain board and the
CMDT itself subsidized village-level collection
of maize.  Following the removal of guaranteed
prices for maize in 1986, maize prices fell and
have been subject to considerable variability.
Area has continued to expand, but farmers have
greatly reduced fertilizer use (credit for maize
inputs was also withdrawn), switched back to
maize + late millet intercropping, and substituted
early-maturing varieties better suited to their own
food security needs.  
The high ROR achieved on past investments in a
focused, integrated maize technology delivery
system is not necessarily a guide to future
returns.  Market opportunities for maize beyond
assuring food security during the “hungry
season” are limited due to the lack of low-cost
processing technologies in Mali.
*Funding for this research was provided by the Technology
Development and Transfer Unit of the Productive Sector Growth and
Environment Division, Office of Sustainable Development, Bureau
for Africa, USAID (AFR/SD/PSGE/TDT).  The research was
conducted under the Food Security II Cooperative Agreement
between AID/Global Bureau, Office of Agriculture and Food
Security, and the Department of Agricultural Economics at Michigan
State University.  The views expressed in this document are
exclusively those of the authors.
Boughton is a Regional Agricultural Economist with ICRISAT’s
Southern and Eastern Africa Program, and former Visiting Assistant
Professor, MSU.  Henry de Frahan is Professor of Agricultural
Economics, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.
This paper is a summary of a report entitled: “Agricultural Research
Impact Assessment: The Case of Maize Technology Adoption in
Southern Mali,” International Development Working Paper No. 41.
It can be obtained by writing to:
MSU Bulletin Office
10-B Agriculture Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1039
This paper is also forthcoming as a SD Publication Series technical
paper.  It can be obtained through USAID’s development information
system (CDIE),  CDIE Reference No. PN-ABS-729.

How Non-Research Investments Affect Research Impact: The Case of Maize Technology Adoption in Southern Mali

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