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Rice Science, 2018, 25(2): 103í110

Determinants of Adoption of Improved Rice Varieties in

Northern Sindh, Pakistan

Abbas Ali CHANDIO, JIANG Yuansheng

(College of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China)

Abstract: Adoption of certified and improved high-yielding crop varieties is important avenue for
increasing agricultural productivity and improving the living standard of the farmers in developing
countries. The main objective of the current study was to examine factors affecting adoption of improved
rice varieties by smallholder farmers in Northern Sindh, Pakistan. The random sampling technique was
used to collect data from 220 smallholder rice farmers through the face to face interview. Data were
analyzed using descriptive statistics and probit regression model. The empirical results showed that year
of education (P ” 0.093), farming experience (P ” 0.043), soil quality (P ” 0.077), farm machinery
ownership (P ” 0.000), access to market information (P ” 0.055) and contact with extension agents (P ”
0.006) had significantly positive influence on adoption of improved rice variety, while age (P ” 0.053) had
significantly negative effect.
Key words: adoption; technology; improved variety; smallholder farmer

Adoption of increasing agricultural new technology can
be an important option for the farmers to get rid of hunger
and food insecurity by improving crop productivity,
reducing food price and making more food accessible
for the poor households. Further, promoting the
adoption of improved crop varieties in a sustainable
manner helps to improve welfare of the households
(Asfaw et al, 2012a). In Asia including Pakistan, rice
is the staple food for the majority of the people, and
has significantly economic importance in agriculture
development and poverty reduction (Ali et al, 2014). It
accounts for almost two million tons to our food
requirements and is an important source of income
generation of the rural households. In terms of area
sown, rice is the third largest crop after wheat and
cotton, and it is cultivated on over 2 724 000 hm2 in
2016–2017 in Pakistan. It contributes for 3.0% in the
value added in agriculture and 0.6% to the GDP (GOP,
2017). In Pakistan, rice is mainly grown in two
provinces i.e. Punjab and Sindh. Both provinces
account more than 88% of total rice production
(Abedullah and Mushtaq, 2007). Due to agro-climatic
and soil conditions, rice is cultivated in upper and
lower parts of Sindh Province of Pakistan. In Sindh,
rice growers directly purchase improved and certified
rice varieties through formal sectors including Sindh
Seed Corporations (SSC), and Rice Research Institute
(RRI) Dokri, Larkana, as well as private agricultural
seed companies. These formal and private sectors
supply more than 10%, and the remaining seeds are
produced by the rice growers themselves. Government
has been made efforts to increase rice cultivation area
and per acre yield. The extensive researches and
continued efforts by agricultural scientists over the
last few decades in Pakistan has achieved better
improvement in rice yield, which, however, is still
much lower compared to the other rice producing
countries. Adoption of improved and certified rice
varieties is important for more profit and increasing
rice productivity. However, improved and certified

Received: 12 August 2017; Accepted: 13 October 2017

Corresponding author: Abbas Ali CHANDIO (3081336062@qq.com; abbasalichandio@gmail.com)
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104
rice varieties have not been widely adopted in rice
producing areas of Pakistan. The rice growers make
use of unregistered and uncertified rice varieties whose
yields are quite lower compared to the improved and
certified rice varieties, due to various factors such as
less access to certified seeds, lack of awareness of
adoption of improved rice varieties (IRVs), lack of
government subsidy, poor infrastructure, rising prices
of fertilizers, shortage of irrigation and lack of credit
facilities (Mirani et al, 2002; Abedullah and Mushtaq,
2007; Chandio et al, 2017). Majority of the rice
growers typically use the last year’s crop seeds instead
of purchasing the seeds of improved released rice
varieties. The non-availability and high prices of
improved and certified variety seeds are the main
reasons for its slow adoption and result in lower per
acre rice productivity in Pakistan. According to
Ghimire et al (2015), replacement of conventional rice
varieties with improved varieties increases the rice
crop productivity. The widespread adoption of diverse
high-yielding rice varieties manifold the rice production
in Bangladesh (Hossain et al, 2006). Adoption of IRV
(AIRV) compared to the conventional variety doubles
the returns for rice crop producers.
The determinants to the adoption of IRVs have been
investigated for various countries including India
(Kumar et al, 2016), Malaysia (Adedoyin et al, 2016),
the Philippine (Mariano et al, 2012), Nepal (Ghimire
et al, 2015), Bangladesh (Hossain et al, 2006), Benin
(Dandedjrohoun et al, 2012), Nigeria (Tiamiyu et al,
2009; Ologbon et al, 2012), Ethiopia (Asmelash, 2012)
and Kenya (Okello et al, 2016). Some studies
conducted in Punjab Province of Pakistan mainly
focus on technical efficiency of rice production and
impact of institutional credit on rice productivity
(Abedullah and Mushtaq, 2007; Khalid Bashir and
Mehmood, 2010; Hussain, 2012). A study examining
the determinants of IRVs with respect to Sindh
Province is missing, therefore, this research aimed to
fill this gap. The main purpose of the current study
was to examine the socio-economic factors that
influence AIRV in Sindh Province of Pakistan.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Study area
Larkana and Shikarpur districts of Sindh Province,
Pakistan were selected for the present study, where
rice is one of the major widespread crops grown in
Rice Science, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2018
overall regions, and is the prime source of income for
major farmers in these districts. Larkana district is
located in the northwest of Sindh Province, Pakistan,
where the Zulifkar Ali Bhutto Agriculture College and
Rice Research Institute is located. The geographical
area of Larkana district is 7 423 km2 with the total
population of 1 927 066. Out of the total population,
557 012 (28.9%) live in urban areas, whereas 1 370 054
(71.1%) live in rural areas, respectively. An average
household size of Larkana district is 5.9 (GOP, 2011).
Further, Shikarpur district is located in the north of
Sindh Province, Pakistan. The geographical area of
this district is 2 512 km2. An estimated population of
Shikarpur district is 880 438. Out of the total
population, 211 979 (24.1%) reside in urban areas,
whereas 668 459 (75.9%) in rural areas. An average
household size of Shikarpur district is 6.8.
Data collection
The primary data was gathered during the harvesting
season of rice crop during November to December in
2016 by utilizing random sampling technique through
a well-structured questionnaire. A total of 220 rice
smallholder farmers were covered in this study with
140 and 80 randomly selected from Shikarpur and
Larkana due to population size of these two districts,
respectively (GOP, 2011). The survey covered a
number of demographic and socio-economic variables
that affect AIRV including age of the respondent head,
year of education, household size, experience,
landholding size, soil quality, farm machinery, market
information and distance, credit accessibility and
extension agents. The collected data were analyzed
with the help of Stata software.
Analytical framework
Probit regression model has been widely utilized to
evaluate the functional association among the probability
of adoption and its determining elements (for example
education, farm size, resource ownership and social
status). The binary econometric models enable a more
specific analysis of farmers’ adoption of new
technology (Langer, 2000; Belay, 2001; Zhou et al,
2008; Mariano et al, 2012; Muzari et al, 2012). This
type of analysis provides more detailed information on
the characteristics of the farmers who tend to adopt a
specific technology. The probit regression model is
preferred over the others because of its good properties,
especially the assumption of normal distribution
(Wooldridge, 2010). In this study, we used probit
Abbas Ali CHANDIO, et al. Adoption of Improved Rice Varieties in Sindh, Pakistan 105

regression model to identify the factors influencing
AIRVs in northern Sindh, Pakistan.
11
AIRV = ȕ0 +ěi =1 ȕi xi + ȝ
ȕ0, Coefficients to be estimated; ȕi, Parameters to be
estimated; xi, Value of the determination; μ, Stochastic
error term.
RESULTS
Descriptive analysis
Table 1 presents summary statistics of some socio-
economic characteristics of the 220 smallholder rice
farmers according to their adoption status. The
average age of all the respondents was 41years and on
average, the respondents had 9 years of education. The
average ages of the respondent were about 41.0, and
the average years of education were 9. The average
family members were 8.7 per household. The mean
value of experience was 27.2 years. Furthermore, 57%
of the respondents had good quality of soil in the
study area and 60% had farm machinery ownership.
As observed, the average distance to the nearest
market was about 11.98 km in the study area. In
contrast, 58% of the respondents had access to market
information. Additionally, 55% of the respondents had
access to credit on average; the respondents had two
contacts with the agricultural extension officers during
the previous year.
Table 2 reports the results of differences between
means of characteristics of non-adopters and adopters
of IRVs. There appeared to be significant difference in
education level of the respondent, landholding size,
farm machinery ownership and soil quality between
non-adopters and adopters. Furthermore, the majority
of IRVs adopter had access to market information,
credit and extension services compared with non-
adopter. However, there was no significant difference
in age, family size, farming experience and distance to
market between the two groups.
Determinants to the AIRV in Sindh, Pakistan
The estimated results of probit regression model are
presented in Table 3. The empirical estimations have
been done by the maximum likelihood method with
the model being highly significant at 1%. The results

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of variables (n = 220).

Code Variable Description Min Max Mean SD

x1 Age (year) Age of the rice grower 23.0 89.0 41.0 10.7
x2 Education (year) Education of the respondent 0.0 16.0 6.9 4.2
x3 Household size Number of total family members in the household 2.0 16.0 8.7 2.6
x4 Experience (year) Farming experience of the respondent 10.0 55.0 27.2 8.6
x5 Landholding size Landholding size in acres 0.5 93.0 14.2 13.3
x6 Soil quality Soil quality (1, if soil quality is good; 0, otherwise) 0.0 1.0 0.6 0.5
x7 Farm machinery Farm machinery ownership (1, if the household owns a tractor or tube well; 0, otherwise) 0.0 1.0 0.6 0.5
x8 Distance (km) Distance to input/output markets 2.0 25.0 12.0 5.5
x9 Market information Market information (1, if the household have access to market information; 0, otherwise) 0.0 1.0 0.6 0.8
x10 Credit accessibility Access to credit (1, if the household has access to credit; 0, otherwise) 0.0 1.0 0.6 0.5
x11 Extension contact Number of extension contacts with extension agent by household head in the last years 0.0 4.0 1.1 1.2
SD, Standard deviation.

Table 2. Differences between non-adopter and adopter of improved rice varieties in northern Sindh, Pakistan.

Variable Non-adopter Adopter Difference t-value

Age (year) 42.0 39.7 2.35 1.567
Year of education (year) 5.7 7.3 -1.57 -2.625***
Household size 8.6 9.0 -0.39 -1.008
Experience (year) 26.6 27.0 -0.39 -0.296
Landholding size 10.5 13.8 -3.27 -1.957**
Soil quality 0.5 0.6 -0.17 -1.975**
Farm machinery 0.4 0.8 -0.46 -6.243***
Distance (km) 12.5 11.6 0.87 0.845
Market information 0.4 0.7 -0.30 -2.354**
Credit accessibility 0.6 0.7 -0.13 -1.834*
Extension contact 0.8 1.4 -0.53 -3.309***
*, P < 0.1; **, P < 0.05; ***, P < 0.01.
106 Rice Science, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2018

of Ȥ2 test indicated that likelihood ratio statistics was
also significant (P ” 0.000), indicating that the model
had a strongly explanatory power. The empirical
results of probit econometric model showed that education
level, farming experience, soil quality, market
information, extension contact and form machinery
were significantly positive determinants for AIRV.
Determining AIRV in Sindh, Pakistan (Marginal
effect)
The AIRV was likely to be influenced by a number of
socio-economic factors of the rural households.
Evidence indicated that education, farming experience,
soil quality, market information, farm machinery and
extension contact with agents during previous year
had significant and positive influence on the adoption
of IRV (Table 4). The estimated marginal coefficient
of education (ȕ2) was 0.014, which means if 1%
increase in formal education, the probability of AIRV
will lead to 0.014% increase. Similarly, the coefficient
of farming experience (ȕ4) was 0.013, which imply
that if 1% increases in farming experience, the AIRV
would increase by 0.013%. Furthermore, the coefficient
of soil quality (ȕ6) was 0.129, implying that if 1%
increases in good quality of soil, the adopting
probability of the rice growers would increase by
0.129%. Finally, the coefficients of access to market
information, farm machinery and extension contact
were found to be significant and positive. These
results implied that if 1% increases in these variables,
the probability of AIRV will enhance by 0.352% and
0.089%, respectively.
DISCUSSION
Probit regression model
Various researchers used different methods for the
data analysis include probit, logit and tobit regression
techniques because of the nature of data. The

Table 3. Probit analysis on determinants of adoption of improved rice varieties in northern Sindh, Pakistan (n = 220).

Variable Coefficient Standard error z-value P > |z| 95% of confidence interval
Age (year) -0.02948** 0.01522 -1.94 0.053 (-0.05932, 0.00036)
Year of education (year) 0.03842* 0.02287 1.68 0.093 (-0.00641, 0.08325)
Household size 0.01044 0.03773 0.28 0.782 (-0.06351, 0.08440)
Experience (year) 0.03652** 0.01801 2.03 0.043 (0.00012, 0.07183)
Landholding size 0.00156 0.00740 0.21 0.833 (-0.01295, 0.01607)
Soil quality 0.34754* 0.19622 1.77 0.077 (-0.03704, 0.73213)
Farm machinery 0.95818*** 0.19477 4.92 0.000 (0.05764, 1.33992)
Distance (km) 0.01413 0.01812 0.78 0.435 (-0.02138, 0.04964)
Market information 0.37762** 0.19640 1.92 0.055 (-0.00732, 0.76256)
Credit accessibility 0.07749 0.19520 0.40 0.691 (-0.30510, 0.46007)
Extension contact 0.24258*** 0.08893 2.73 0.006 (0.06828, 0.41688)
Constant -1.24992** 0.59725 -2.09 0.036 (-2.42052, -0.07933)
LR Ȥ2 (11) = 58.92
Prob > Ȥ2 = 0.0000
Pseudo R2 = 0.2021
Log likelihood = -116.33784
*, P < 0.1; **, P < 0.05; ***, P < 0.01.

Table 4. Marginal effect analysis on determinants of adoption of improved rice varieties in northern Sindh, Pakistan (n = 220).

Variable Marginal effect Standard error z-value P > |z| 95% of confidence interval
Age (year) -0.010844** 0.00557 -1.95 0.052 (-0.021760, 0.000072)
Year of education (year) 0.0141344* 0.00840 1.68 0.092 (-0.002327, 0.030596)
Household size 0.0038423 0.01388 0.28 0.782 (-0.023360, 0.031045)
Experience (year) 0.0134344** 0.00659 2.04 0.042 (0.000512, 0.026357)
Landholding size 0.0005744 0.00272 0.21 0.833 (-0.004761, 0.005910)
Soil quality 0.1286405* 0.07273 1.77 0.077 (-0.013903, 0.271184)
Farm machinery 0.3528578*** 0.06885 5.12 0.000 (0.217909, 0.487807)
Distance (km) 0.0051996 0.00666 0.78 0.435 (-0.007845, 0.018245)
Market information 0.1389189** 0.07181 1.93 0.053 (-0.001819, 0.279657)
Credit accessibility 0.0285513 0.07203 0.40 0.692 (-0.112624, 0.169727)
Extension contact 0.0892391** 0.03257 2.74 0.006 (0.002541, 0.153073)
*, P < 0.1; **, P < 0.05; ***, P < 0.01.
Abbas Ali CHANDIO, et al. Adoption of Improved Rice Varieties in Sindh, Pakistan
socio-economic factors influence adoption of
improved high-yielding varieties, and the impact level
on rice yield in Mada, Malaysia was investigated by
utilizing logit regression model (Adedoyin et al, 2016).
Result revealed that education, experience and farm
size are the factors influencing the adoption of
improved high-yielding rice varieties. Further, the
determinants of adoption of improved Ofada rice
variety and the profitability of the rice enterprise in
Nigeria were investigated by utilizing probit and gross
margin methodology (Ologbon et al, 2012b). Results
showed that education of the farmers, extension
contacts and cost of cultivars positively and significantly
influence adoption of the improved Ofada rice variety.
Similarly, the determinants of adoption of rice
production technologies in Nigeria was investigated
by using Tobit multivariate regression technique
(Abubakar et al, 2016). The results showed that
household size, farm size, experience, social capital,
training participation, extension contacts and market
distance significantly and positively influenced
adoption of rice production technologies. Adoption of
improved rice variety and its effects on farmers output
was examined in Ghana by using treatment effect
model (Bruce et al, 2014). The results show that
adoption of improved rice variety has positive impact
on farm output. Further, results revealed that formal
education, household sizes and smallholder farms
positivity influenced adoption of improved rice variety.
Additionally, socio-economics factors influencing on
adoption of improved high-yielding rice varieties
among households in Nepal were investigated by
utilizing probit econometric model (Ghimire et al,
2015). Results showed that extension services, seed
access and education play significant roles in AIRVs.
Further, farm size, land type and animal power are the
main factors influencing the probability of adopting of
IRVs.
Factors determining adoption of improved rice
varieties
Improved seed is the most desirable agricultural input
for increasing output of food grain crops. Adoption of
improved seed is a very much important component in
agricultural productivity system. Further, access to
high-yielding variety ensures food security and
prosperity of the farmers. The main objective of this
research was to examine factors affecting AIRVs by
smallholder farmers in Sindh, Pakistan. We employed
probit regression model to analyze the data.
107
A number of factors influencing adoption of rice
technology includes cultivated land size (Hussain,
2012), farm assets such as tractor ownership and tube
well ownership (Ali et al, 2014), household savings
(Frongillo et al, 1997), financial constraints (Chang et al,
2014; Singh and Varshney, 2016), accessibility of credit
(Gundersen and Gruber, 2001; Ribar and Hamrick,
2003; Chandio, 2016; Chandio et al, 2017), ownership
of livestock (Ali and Khan, 2013), low level of
income (Loopstra and Tarasuk, 2013), non-farm work
(Owusu et al, 2011), gender of the household head
(Kassie et al, 2014), education, household size, experience,
fertilizer use, irrigation access, fertility of soil, climatic
conditions (Buriro et al, 2015; Hasnain et al, 2015),
contact with extension agents and training, membership
to farmer groups (Mirani et al, 2002; Mirani and Memon,
2011; Adedoyin et al, 2016), and use of information
and communication technology such as mobile phone,
TV and radio (Adesina and Baidu-Forson, 1995;
Zhang et al, 2016; Aldosari et al, 2017).
The estimated results of the probit regression model
(Table 3) shows that the age of household head has a
significantly negative effect on AIRV. This result
implies that an increase in the age of the farmer would
lead to decrease likelihood of adoption of improved
rice variety significantly. In other words, young
farmers are expected to be more eager in adopting rice
technologies on their farms than older farmers, being
that they are risk bearers in decision making (Chekene
and Chancellor, 2015; Abdulai, 2016; Singh and
Varshney, 2016).
Education plays a very important role in promoting
agricultural technologies. The education variable has a
significant (P ” 0.093) and positive influence on AIRV,
suggesting that more educated and informed farmers
seems to be positive in adoption of improved rice
technology than the others. Further, education level of
the farmer not only increases his rice productivity but
also improves his ability to understand and evaluate
new rice technologies. The finding is consistent with
Asfaw et al (2012b), Mariano et al (2012), Bruce et al
(2014), Ghimire et al (2015) and Kumar et al (2016),
who found significant and positive relation between
education and adoption of new rice technologies.
The estimated coefficient for family size is positive
but not significant, while the coefficient of farming
experience is significantly positive, which imply that
more farming experience will help the farmers in
making decision to adopt agricultural technology.
Similar finding is reported by Dandedjrohoun et al
108
(2012), Abubakar et al (2016) and Adedoyin et al
(2016). Farming experience improves farmers’ skills
at production, which implies that more experienced
farmers may have a low level of uncertainty about
improved agricultural innovations, performance and
also be able to evaluate the advantages of new
agricultural technology.
Furthermore, landholding size is expected to positively
influence in the AIRV. In our study, landholding size is
positively contributed to participation of improved rice
seed technology. Nevertheless, the variable was not
significantly. This result implies that farmers’ having
large landholding size is more likely to AIRVs on their
farms. They will be willing to utilize their land to new
agricultural technology compared to those with small
landholding size (Abubakar et al, 2016; Kumar et al,
2016; Singh and Varshney, 2016).
Soil quality has a significant and positive association
with AIRV in the study area, which is an interesting
result, and implies that farmers who have good quality
of soil are more likely to adopt improved and certified
rice varieties (Ghimire et al, 2015; Abdulai, 2016).
Farm machinery ownership is an important indicator
of farm household resources. The coefficient of
machinery ownership is showing significantly positive
relation to the AIRV. This suggests that farmers who
have farm machinery including tractor and tube well
are more likely to adopt some new rice technology
(Abdulai, 2016).
Additionally, market distance has positive and
statistical no significant influence, which is consistent
with the pervious findings (Asfaw et al, 2010; Hagos
and Zemedu, 2015; Abubakar et al, 2016). This result
implies that shorter market distance is likely to reduce
transaction cost and improve access to market information,
thereby influencing early adoption. Further, results
show that the farmers who are further away from the
market are less likely to adopt improved rice technology
due to increased transaction costs. In rural areas of
Sindh Province of Pakistan, government aims to build
up new infrastructure and improve the quality of roads,
which may increase better access to main inputs market.
Information plays a very important role in strengthening
a farmer’s decision and making associated with farming
activities by improving his skill and knowledge about
modern agricultural technologies, inputs and markets.
The result showed significant and positive association
between market information and the AIRVs. Farmers
need up-to-date information regarding inputs, new
technology, developed and released improved varieties,
Rice Science, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2018
prices and new agronomic practices. Further, market
information has a positive influence on adoption of
new seeds or technologies, and increasing crop
productivity and livelihood of the farmers (Aker, 2011;
Ali and Kumar, 2011; Ogutu et al, 2014; Mittal and
Mehar, 2016).
The credit accessibility is positive relative but not
significant with AIRVs as it is used to purchase necessary
farm inputs for crop production including improved
and certified varieties, fertilizers, pesticides and farm
machinery. In Pakistan, formal and informal sources
of credit give the farmers more chance for adopting of
new rice varieties (Tiamiyu et al, 2009; Chekene and
Chancellor, 2015; Hagos and Zemedu, 2015).
The agriculture extension service is very important
institutional factor. In this study, extension contact is
used as a proxy for institutional network. It has a
significant and positive relation with AIRVs. This
means that farmers in more contact with extension
agents are more likely to adopt the improved rice
varieties. Various researchers observed that the farmers
with a regular extension contact are more willing to
adopt new agricultural varieties (Mirani et al, 2002;
Mengal et al, 2014; Chekene and Chancellor, 2015;
Ghimire et al, 2015; Abubakar et al, 2016).
CONCLUSIONS
Access to certify seed and appropriate selection of
improved seed varieties for the specific location will
also improve adoption decision of the growers as it
will increase production to feed the growing population.
This study analyzed the factors that influence the
adoption of IRV by smallholder farmers in Sindh,
Pakistan. For the study, probit econometric model was
applied and the empirical results revealed that education
level, farming experience, soil quality, market information,
farm machinery ownership and extension contact
significantly and positively influenced the AIRV,
whereas age had significantly negative effect on adoption
of IRV. Furthermore, credit is a very important factor
in farming sector that raises the farm productivity and
improves livelihood of the rural households. In this
study, credit accessibility is positively contributed to
improved rice seed technology participation. Nevertheless,
the variable was not significant. Based on the findings,
this study recommended that financial sources of
credit including Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited,
Commercial Banks and Khushhali Microfinance Bank
should provide timely and easy access agricultural
Abbas Ali CHANDIO, et al. Adoption of Improved Rice Varieties in Sindh, Pakistan
credit facilities to the farmers. In Sindh Province of
Pakistan, the majority of rice farmers do not have
access to certified and improved rice varieties due to
their high price, which results that farmers still utilize
conventional rice variety seed and thus lower per acre
rice productivity in Sindh, Pakistan. Therefore, our
study recommend that public and private sectors
should provide IRVs at affordable price. National and
provincial government should also provide enabled
environment for the service providers, including private
seeds supplier companies, agricultural input dealers and
private extension service.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to the College of Economics,
Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China for
its financial and moral support.
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(Managing Editor: WANG Caihong)