(1) Background: Even though agriculture is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy, the improvements made regarding crop productivity appeared insufficient and had slow progress. Several studies suggest possible ways to identify the challenges in the productivity of the crop sub-sector. Nevertheless, there are gaps in the empirical literature in both knowledge and methods. The current study intends to identify the factors that affect growth in the productivity of teff, maize, barley, wheat, and sorghum crops. (2) Methods: Cobb-Douglass stochastic production function is estimated using a panel data set of the Living Standard Measurement Survey. To address the objectives of the study, a parametric estimation with a time-varying decay model with deterministic and stochastic components was adopted. (3) Results and Discussion: The effect of inputs on aggregate output was positive and significant at the 1% significance level, implying the presence of economies of scale. Variation in the inefficiency term explained 46.4% of the total variance in the composed error term. The average productivity of major crops was 6.19 per year. This study implied that technical change in the production of major crops increased by 22% with better use of available technology. (4) Conclusions and Policy Implication: The findings pinpoint that farmers should focus on technical change and intensification of improved agricultural inputs.

This invention describes that the rate of input utilization is decisive for productivity growth of considered crops. The invention enhances the productivity of major crops like maize, teff, wheat, barley and sorghum crops. The sample was based on a panel data of (2011, 2013, and 2015) acquired from the Ethiopian socio-economic survey was used. The invention was scientifically analyzed using the basic fixed effect model and dose-response function under exogenous and endogenous treatment models. In the exogenous and endogenous treatment cases, households applying fertilizer have achieved actual different levels of higher outputs than their counterparts. In endogenous treatment, the household applying fertilizer harvested much higher output than those in the counterfactual condition. Moreover, inputs: fertilizer, seed, labor force, and farm capital utilization have a critical impact on the aggregate outputs of considered crops.

Harnessing agricultural technology can serve as a catalyst for progress in Sub Saharan Africa, enabling countries to ensure food insecurity. Inadequate agricultural technologies have caused smallholder farmers to depend heavily on traditional agricultural farming. This context consequently resulted in lower agricultural productivity in the region. To address this gap, this study analyzed the impact of the randomized adoption of improved cassava varieties on the welfare outcomes among cassava producing farmers in South Ethiopia. The study applied three round panel data collected from 1040 cassava producers between 2020 and 2024, who were the beneficiaries of the Rural Ethiopian Safety Net Program. The study employed three complementary adoption interventions among cassava producing farmers: (i) agronomic technical training, (ii) agronomic technical training plus improved varieties, and (iii) agronomic technical training plus improved varieties plus fertilizer. The study employed a difference-in-differences (DiD) estimator and two-stage instrumental variable (IV) models for data analysis. Moreover, the study compared the intent-to-treat (ITT) and treatment-on-treated (TOT) effects to estimate their effectiveness in estimating adoption likelihoods, intensity of adoption, and welfare impacts. The study revealed a positive and significant impact of the treatments on the probability of adopting the Hawassa-04 variety and its intensity. Similarly, the welfare outcome results of the ITT and TOT effects indicate that the treated households had shown an increase on consumption expenditure per capita, income per AEU, and the probability of food security compared with those of the control group. The finding of this study suggests implementing incentive-based interventions like providing farmers with robust technical training packages, subsidized improved cassava varieties, and fertilizer can significantly increase cassava production and well-being of the farming community.