Despite the importance of location-specific adaptive crop breeding research, past reforms of breeding systems in Nigeria have focused on centralizing breeding activities into fewer locations. This has been based partly on the premise that such research systems can still effectively meet the need for a diverse set of crop varieties suited for different agroecological conditions by using numerous outstations and multilocational trials. However, little empirical evidence exists to support this premise. Using panel data from farm households in northern Nigeria and spatial data on agroecological factors, this study shows that crop productivity and technical efficiency at farm household level is positively affected by the degree of similarity between the agroecological conditions of the locations of these households and where major crop breeding institutes are headquartered. Where improved varieties are developed affects crop productivity in different locations.