1ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India
2International Food Policy Research Institute, South Asia Office, New Delhi, 110012, India
3Oklahoma State University, USA
This study on the drivers of seed replacement and ex post impact on the yields of chickpea and pigeon pea in India uses data on 1, 764 chickpea and 944 pigeon pea farmers from the nationally representative Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households conducted in 2013. We use a probit model to study the drivers of seed replacement and coarsened exact matching to causally study the impact on yields. We find that access to irrigation and credit can improve seed replacement and chickpea productivity. Chickpea farmers in districts under the National Food Security Mission on pulses (NFSM-pulses) are more likely to be replacing seeds. In pigeon pea, access to irrigation alone is the key driver. Further, using coarsened exact matching estimation, we find that seed replacement increases chickpea yields by 117.36 kg per hectare.
