Impact of Radio on Technical Efficiency of Farmers The Case of Wheat Producing Farmers in Ethiopia

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of radio in improving technical efficiency focusing onwheat producing farmers selected from 61 woredas in Oromia, Amhara, SNNP andTigray regional states in Ethiopia. Propensity score matching (PSM) approach was usedas it is becoming increasingly a standard approach for evaluating impacts usingobservational data. The study indicated that technical efficiency level is significantlyhigher for farmers that have radio than those who have not. The use of radio appears tosignificantly increase the level of technical efficiency as wheat growing farm householdswho have radio are more efficient by 6% than those that don't have. The study concludesand recommends that using radio could be an effective strategy to improve agriculturalefficiency in general and technical efficiency of farmers in particular which indicates theenormous potential of radio for the transformation of Ethiopia's agriculture.