Impact of positive selection technology on seed yam productivity

Jonas Osei-Adu; Robert Aidoo; Simon Cudjoe Fialor; Stella Ama Ennin; Kingsley Osei; Bright Owusu Asante; Gideon Danso-Abbeam

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30397

Impact of positive selection technology on seed yam productivity

Heliyon. 2024 Apr 27;10(9):e30397. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30397. eCollection 2024 May 15.

Authors

Jonas Osei-Adu¹, Robert Aidoo², Simon Cudjoe Fialor², Stella Ama Ennin¹, Kingsley Osei¹, Bright Owusu Asante², Gideon Danso-Abbeam³

Affiliations

¹ Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - Crops Research Institute (CSIR-CRI), Kumasi, Ghana.
² Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness and Extension, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
³ Department of Agribusiness, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana.

Abstract

Positive Selection (PS) technique has been shown to reduce virus infection and increase yields, however there is insufficient empirical evidence on how this technology affects seed yam farm productivity. This study employed Propensity Score Matching (PSM) technique to evaluate the impact of PS on seed yam yields of 368 farmers randomly selected from Ghana and Nigeria. The findings showed that educational attainment, distance from the farm to the nearest market, cropping patterns, and other factors influenced farmers' adoption of PS. Furthermore, the adoption of PS technology resulted in a 16.98 % boost in farm productivity for PS seed yam farmers compared to their productivity without the technology. It is of the utmost importance that PS adoption be supported by developing tailored training materials for farmers to improve their use of the PS technology.

Keywords: Ghana; Nigeria; Positive selection technology; Yam seed; Yield.