Heterogeneity in the Impact of Conservation Agriculture Practices on Farm Performance and Inorganic Fertilizer Use in Ghana

We employ farm household data to investigate the heterogeneous treatment effects of conservation agriculture (CA) practices on farm performance and inorganic fertilizer use in Ghana. We use the marginal treatment effect (MTE) framework to account for treatment effect heterogeneity in both observed and unobserved characteristics and to analyze policy-relevant treatment effects (PRTE). Farmers with a high propensity to adopt CA reduce nitrogen usage from inorganic sources and experience significant increases in maize yields and farm net returns compared to those less likely to adopt. PRTEs reveal that increasing training sessions and providing incentives to reduce implementation costs are crucial for promoting conservation agriculture.