Plot-level impacts of improved lentil varieties in Bangladesh

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 25;17(1):e0262146. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262146. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

The advent of improved lentil varieties (ILVs) in the mid-1990s solved the disease problem which almost halted lentil production in Bangladesh. Levels of adoption of ILVs have been documented in the literature, but little is known about their impacts. Applying an instrumental variables regression to data collected from a sample of 1,694 lentil plots and DNA fingerprinting for varietal identification, this study provides estimates of the plot-level impacts of adoption of ILVs in Bangladesh. Model results show that adoption of ILVs is associated with 14.3% (181.14 kg/ha) higher yields and 17.23% (US$169.44/ha) higher gross margins. Since 45% of lentil area is under ILVs, they generated over 8.77 tones (6%) more supply of lentils from domestic sources, saving the country US$8.22 million in imports in 2015 alone. By investing in the generation and scaling of ILVs, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries with similar agro-ecologies can increase production and decrease dependency on lentil imports.

MeSH terms

  • Bangladesh
  • Crop Production / economics*
  • DNA Fingerprinting
  • Lens Plant / genetics
  • Lens Plant / growth & development*
  • Microsatellite Repeats / genetics

Grants and funding

YAY - Agreement # 200125 FUNDER: GRAIN LEGUMES AND DRYLAND CEREALS (GLDC) CRP - http://gldc.cgiar.org/ YAY - 200037 FUNDER: STANDING PANEL FOR IMPACT ASSESSMENT (SPIA): https://cas.cgiar.org/spia The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.