Economic Impact Assessment for Technology: The Case of Improved Soybean Varieties in Southwest Nigeria

The Study on economic impact assessment for the production of improved soybean varieties in Nigeria was carried out in Nigeria using the agronomic data on yield of the nationally coordinated soybean research from two major zones namely the southwest and the middle belt.The study assesses the economic returns due to improved soybean varieties. Primary data were collected with the use of structured and validated questionnaires. A sample of 288 respondents was drawn from four states namely Oyo, Ogun, Kwara and Niger State at 72 respondents per state.Secondary data were collected from Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, (IAR & T), National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), Central Bank of Nigeria CBN and Federal Office of Statistics (FOS).An internal rate of return (IRR) of 38 percent was estimated from the stream of netted real social gains at 1985 constant.The return to investment in soybean production technology is attractive and justifies the investments made on the technologies. The policy implication is that there is underinvestment in soybean production research.