Differential Risk of Input Combinations for Bolivian Farmers
Item: Differential Risk of Input Combinations for Bolivian Farmers
Analysis of different agricultural inputs and how it effects crop yield and risk for potato farming in the altiplano region of Bolivia. Data is from the 2008 Bolivia National Agricultural Survey (provided from a course assignment).
- Analysis of different agricultural inputs from Bolivian agriculture data
- Skills: R Programming, Data Analysis
Analysis of different agricultural inputs and how it effects crop yield and risk for potato farming in the altiplano region of Bolivia. Data is from the 2008 Bolivia National Agricultural Survey (provided from a course assignment).
Variable name |
Description |
potatoes |
Kilograms of potatoes obtained |
land |
Hectares of land planted with potatoes |
fertilizer |
If inorganic fertilizer was used |
improved seeds |
If improved seeds were used |
The mean yield (kg per ha) for each combination is:
The standard deviation can be used to measure the variability of the yield for each combination of inputs.
The histograms show that the use of fertilizer causes greater variability for potato yields. The use of improved seeds with no fertilizer seems to have no effect on increasing potato yields. The combination of fertilizer and improved seeds have a larger variability of yield. The histograms also make it clearer that the farmer sample sizes are not the same for each group. This could be an indication that farmers do not choose to use fertilizer because there is a larger variability for potato yields. Alternatively, this could indicate that farmers lack the knowledge of how to properly use the fertilizer, so they do not opt in to use it.
- Used neither fertilizer nor improved seeds: 4036.818 kg/ha
- Used fertilizer but not improved seeds: 5629.415 kg/ha
- Used improved seeds but not fertilizer: 3425.429 kg/ha
- Used both fertilizer and improved seeds: 6865.152 kg/ha
The standard deviation can be used to measure the variability of the yield for each combination of inputs.
- Used neither fertilizer nor improved seeds: 4081.139 kg/ha
- Used fertilizer but not improved seeds: 4572.785 kg/ha
- Used improved seeds but not fertilizer: 4039.918 kg/ha
- Used both fertilizer and improved seeds: 5920.558 kg/ha
The histograms show that the use of fertilizer causes greater variability for potato yields. The use of improved seeds with no fertilizer seems to have no effect on increasing potato yields. The combination of fertilizer and improved seeds have a larger variability of yield. The histograms also make it clearer that the farmer sample sizes are not the same for each group. This could be an indication that farmers do not choose to use fertilizer because there is a larger variability for potato yields. Alternatively, this could indicate that farmers lack the knowledge of how to properly use the fertilizer, so they do not opt in to use it.