@article{Cavatassi:289050,
      recid = {289050},
      author = {Cavatassi, Romina and Hopkins, Jeffrey and Lipper, Leslie},
      title = {The role of crop genetic diversity in coping with  agricultural production shocks: insights from eastern  Ethiopia},
      address = {2006-12-18},
      series = {ESA Working Paper 06-17},
      month = {Dec},
      year = {2006},
      note = {FAO Document Repository: <a  href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-ah805e.pdf">http://www.fao.org/3/a-ah805e.pdf</a>},
      abstract = {Improving agricultural productivity and farm level  resilience to agricultural production shocks is a critical  component of reducing poverty and improving household food  security throughout the developing world, and particularly  in Ethiopia which is among the poorest countries in the  world. This paper explores how agricultural households in  the Hararghe region of eastern Ethiopia, an area rich in  crop genetic diversity, but with low and variable  agricultural productivity and high rates of poverty, manage  their crop genetic resources to cope with drought, a  prevalent source of agricultural production shocks. Our  analysis looks at reasons for cultivating modern varieties  versus landrace crop varieties of sorghum, and the  implications for farm level resilience to drought as well  as choice of coping strategy when such shocks occur. The  analysis is run using a unique dataset collected during  2002-2003 production season when eastern Ethiopia  experienced a major drought with widespread crop failure  ensuing. Our results indicate that there are linkages  between crop genetic diversity and the choice of mechanism  for coping with drought that households adopt. The results  suggest that MV adoption is not an ex ante risk coping  strategy, and that indeed households growing modern sorghum  varieties are more likely to have a crop failure than those  who grow only landrace sorghum. The results indicate also  that small and medium producers on marginal lands are most  likely to be vulnerable to a crop failure, particularly if  they are also MV adopters moreover location is found to be  a critical determinant of the choice to replant sorghum.  Further analysis is requires to formulate any definitive  policy prescriptions, however our results suggest that  sorghum MVs despite their early maturity, are not resilient  in the face of a drought related production shocks, and  that local sorghum crop genetic diversity is an important  means of coping with these shocks.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/289050},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.289050},
}