Do improved agricultural practices boost farm productivity? the evidence from Karnataka, India

This study intends to analyse the impact of improved agricultural practices (IAPs) on crop productivity and farmers’ income. A sample of 991 farmers has been selected purposively from four districts of Karnataka, where 50% of them are treated with IAPs. We employed the endogenous switching regression (ESR) model and the propensity score matching (PSM) method to assess the impact of IAPs on farmer income and crop productivity. The findings show that farm income for the treatment group was 23% higher than for control farmers and crop productivity improved 22%.